Why Do Writers ... Write?

A Writer ... Writing

No one is asking, let alone demanding, that you write. The world is not waiting with bated breath for your article. 

Whether or not you get a single word on paper, the sun will rise, the earth will spin, the universe will expand. Writing is forever and always a choice - your choice. ~Beth Mende Conny


That is an interesting quote by Ms. Conny, and it's so true.  Nothing in the world will change if I write, or don't write. Writing is a choice, but it's a most interesting choice.

I decided to ask a group of writers why they write.  What I found was that their reasons for writing were as varied as the number of writers I asked:

Some write because it's their job. That's what they're paid to do. 

Some write because it's a hobby and something they enjoy doing. 

Some write because it's a challenge, maybe through a writing community, or a teacher in school. 

Some write because they're in love and they want to express their innermost feelings. 

Some write because it's a driving compulsion, a mental lava flow, if you will.  [I'm assuming this is the category the prolific Steven King falls into]. 

And some write because they're uncomfortable with the words banging and clanging aimlessly inside. They have to write and get the words out. 

The one response that was universal was, the serious 'writers' write for the sheer love of writing.

It's a given that all writers want to be good.  But the dedicated writers, the real writers, want to be so unique, as to be able to write one thought, one idea, one poem, one story -- at least one thing -- in such a new and wonderful way that they'll be remembered for it, long after they're gone.

Like Anais Nin once said, (and I love it):

"The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say."

As for me, I write because I love writing. It doesn't matter whether I'm writing poetry for adults, children, short stories, essays, one of my blogs, or a love letter to Robert. I write because it's an addiction and a hobby.  I write to leave something of me behind; something that I hope is good; something so new, so unique and so different that my children's children's children will read it some day, smile, and then say,

"That was my grandmother -- she wrote that.  She sure was a character.  How I wish I could have known her ..."

Please tell me, why do YOU write?

Hugs from me to you,
CJ


“A writer soon learns that easy to read is hard to write.” ~CJ Heck