Why do you write?

Of course, since we're all here on this subforum, we all have some interest in writing. I'm just curious- what is it that makes all of you guys write in the first place?

For me...I just need a way to get my ideas out of my head. I need to be able to tell stories and communicate my thoughts, or they'll just fade away or stick around to drive me crazy. Besides, I just think it's a lot of fun to develop a world and characters all your own!

What can I say, I like making stories.

Because no-one seems to be writing the stories that I want to read.

Why not?

Just had the worst day of my career. I will spare you the details, save that I was at my office until eight thirty attempting to salvage the diasaster.

Then I got home and spent the rest of the night writing. And it was wonderful. Video games or music would have only added to the tension. Wandering the internet was right out.

But just putting my imaginings to paper, with the hopes that others may come to care about them as I do? It just felt so right, giving me a sense of purpose that melted the days trials away.

That is why I write.

My reasons for writing are twofold. Some of the best ideas I've ever had have occurred to me in relation to my writing. I want to realize these ideas in concrete form and then share them so that other people can see them to learn what they think.

It all started the day my parents were killed in a dark alley after we left a showing of the Mark of Zorro...

Idunno. I guess because I like my stuff being out there to people to read.

Before I became a writer, I was an artist - I would draw everywhere all the time; in old photos, I can often be seen with a notebook in hand. The same is still true, but now I'm writing instead of drawing. I started writing partly because I started reading Harry Potter and partly because I hated how "un-anime" my art was. Now, I think those reasons changed over time.

Ultimately, I write because I can make myself magical, immortal, and beautiful. Nigel/Niko is everything I wish I could be. Even his tragedies are beautiful to me because I've made him into a villain sue. I dunno, I write because it's the closest I'm likely to get to being a fyking god. (shrug) I write because I have some serious issues to deal with and fantasy is my genre of choice because where else can I expect to find magic?

I like all the answers, guys.

My mind spends more time to itself than in the real world. I do not like it, drab, repetitive, and at many points frustrating and hopeless.

But in my mind I can do anything, I bounce ideas off each other like marbles, some stick and fuse and become a new idea, one that I had not expected. Other's splinter and fragment into sub ideas that I can incorporate into others. I just derive pleasure from the entire process of learning, analyzing, and creating. Eventually a theme starts to emerge, usually around my passions, it's like a guiding color. I start to connect ideas and a story develops, as I connect more other's come into being until I have a great web, background information and assorted plot points and features I want to touch upon. I make a person, when and where in this web is usually the impulse I happen to have at the time, and I write, taking this person and exploring this universe I have constructed. It may be very familiar but I know that this particular instance likely exists only in my head.

So why do I write? I love being able to create, that I am able to make these connections, and like any work of art, I want to share it, and explore the webs that others make.

TLDR: A lifelong habit of daydreaming and a desire to show others what I made.

edited 12th Oct '14 5:01:52 PM by Slysheen

That sounds a lot like how it works for me!

Extreme boredom, and it keeps my hands off my dick.

I first started writing fanfiction because I wanted to get into Tolkien and Harry Potter even more than I was already.

Then I started writing original stories alongside fanfiction because 1) I love fairy tales and mythology, and 2) WHY DOES EVERYONE BE USING THE SAME VAGUELY-EUROPEAN STABLE OF CHARACTERS AND PLOTS? I love Europe and Fantasy Europe, but there's way too much awesomeness in other cultures to just keep all our writing there.

I started writing scripts because I already see shit in my head as movie-like, and it takes a giant step out of "OMG I WANT THIS IDEA TO BE MADE INTO A MOVIE." If I write the script myself, there'll be considerably less Executive Meddling.

But the most common reason that I write stuff: I want people to see what I see in my head.

edited 12th Oct '14 9:24:30 PM by Sharysa

Because I like books, movies, cartoons, all the stuffs, and when I see stories, characters, or aspects I don't like in these things, there's this urge I have to 'fix' them and make them more to my liking.

Because why the frak not?

I think I had a big imagination as a kid, as I made up stories as I played with my toys. Each toy had its own personality and I created over-arching plots for them (maybe it's because of all the animated movies I've seen at that age). This was my start.

Then I guess as time went on, I used words. I hated the writing process because of how tedious it was for me, so I went on to drawing.

I began to love writing again for the reasons already mentioned, but all in all, I want to tell a good story that will touch and entertain readers. That's what I want to do. Captivate them with compelling characters and story. (I guess that's also the reason why I decided to go for writing a tv show)

Because I am lit on fire.

I write so that I may rise above a world of my own creation, and see for a moment as if through the eyes of God.

Because I'm an ugly degenerate hobbit with poor manners and no physical ability. Writing is pretty much my only survival skill.

I'm being held hostage right now and if I don't right, the taker will take me. Right now I'm using a loophole abuse to type this since it's technically writing. Please, someone, send help!

Because I enjoy crafting stuff & I really enjoy entertaining people. I'm an entertainer at heart and writing has really become my means. It originally wasn't. It started as a means of improving a skill elsewhere entertainment wise, cross-training essentially, and became my core passion.

Because sometimes life just makes a whole lot more sense when I replace the trains with giant millipedes and the canteen staff with nigh-unstoppable superbeings.

It's fun.

edited 18th Oct '14 6:17:07 PM by dvorak

I write the kind of stories I'd want to read. Brandon Sanderson has been a great inspiration for me recently, with his well-developed worlds and characters, intricate plots and rule-driven Functional Magic systems. I like to come up with imaginative settings and powers to play with, the plot and characters coming second.

1. To escape reality.

2. Because stories come to me, and I want to see them play out in detail.

3. As a proxy for experiences I'd like to have, if only the laws of physics, etc. would cooperate.

4. Because I'm bored.

5. Because I like spending time with my characters.

Not good reasons, any of them, but there you go.