I find the following question to be one of worth to all writers, at every stage of the game, from aspiring debut to New York Times bestseller:
Why do you write?
I admit to a deep interest in the question. I have a number of author friends whose opinions matter to me a great deal, and I’m curious to see if any of them will stop by and share their answer.
I ask also because I recently had the pleasure of attending a writing retreat with a number of brilliant, talented writers, and we touched on this, albeit briefly. I came out of the discussion with this—I think it’s one of the hardest questions a writer can ask themselves and truthfully answer.
Because there are a million answers to the question of why create art, especially when there’s quite a precedent that shows creating our unique “art” does not guarantee fame, fortune, or self-actualization, as so many of us are hoping. On the contrary, it often leads to rack and ruin, unhappiness and divorce, and even, at its worst, death.
So why do we keep at it? What is it that drives us to create, to tell stories, to make art for others to celebrate and abhor?
Here’s a top-of-mind list of why we write (and by write, I mean create, in any form):
To be read
To make a living
To win awards
To become famous
To get a job
To tell stories that need to be told
To entertain
To affect change
To give people something to think about
To alter the course of humanity
To show someone you can
To get rich
To win over a love interest
To get revenge
To chase away demons
To satisfy some indefinable inner urge to write
To heal thyself
There are many more reasons. What do you think, fellow scribblers? Are you willing to share why you do it? I’ll go first.
I write to entertain, to affect change, to make a living, to chase away demons, to heal my soul, and because I can’t imagine doing anything else.
What about you?
This is, indeed, a hard question to answer. Maybe because there are so many answers? All of the following reasons are true for me:
I write because it is the only career I’ve ever wanted to have.
Because from my earliest memories, as my mother read to me, stories were the language of love (they made me FEEL).
Because a teacher once told me I was good at it.
Because an editor once told me that I was so bad at it I could never even be “edited to a publishable level.” (Hello petty, vengeful Ariel who lives to prove people wrong).
Because, at a core level, I feel alive when I write.
Because I learn so much every time I write a novel.
Because I am unemployable otherwise.
Because I love it.
For me it's absolutely compulsive. My brain just produces these things and if I don't do something with them I think I would go a bit crazy (or more than I am already...) On a really fundamental level it's also the only thing I've ever been good at. It wasn't the talent I would have chosen. I think it was Vonnegut who said "Every writer I know would rather be a musician," and that was deeply true for me. I would have much rather been a musician or an actor or any number of other creative things, but this is the modest talent chance or circumstance gave me. So at a certain point I stopped being bitter about the talents I didn't have and decided to use the one I do to celebrate those other things. So I suppose that's why I'm an "ekphrastic" sort of writer--always most interested in representing other forms of art.