Why Do You Write?

Simple question that can have elaborate, deep answers; and I'd like to discuss the topic with you ladies and gents. So why do you guys write?


For me, it's because when my brother and I were young our mother would read us books. The classics like Moby Dick, Robinson Crueso (probably spelled his name wrong), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Boxcar Kids, etc, etc. While most people read to escape and take on the role of someone else, I read to discover and explore. I was fascinated by these worlds that the authors created for their characters. Be they realistic worlds like in Oliver Twist, or fantastical worlds like in Through the Looking Glass, the author created it and brought it to life with their descriptions, their characters, their lore. I wanted to escape into these worlds, not as the characters who the story focused on, but as myself, exploring these worlds and discovering their secrets. When I was young, I imagined myself as another character beside the protagonist, helping the story in my own ways. Later in life, I would question the worlds, I wanted to explore and become a part of it. It was this view on reading that led me to writing. I wanted to create these worlds, I wanted to flesh them out, I wanted others to get lost in them and I wanted to call it my own. I wanted to put into place my own laws, my own physics, my own everything and I wanted to populate this world with characters who have their own lives and their own stories.
It was this desire that made me start writing, and it's the same desire that made me take interest in Role Play. I could share my ideas, see what others thought, see others' ideas and play a part in their worlds. I absolutely love the idea behind RPing and to this day it's one of my favorite pass times. I would absolutely love to write my own novel, but I have a lot of issues I need to deal with before I can try it again. My previous attempts have ended badly because of my self-destructive tendencies.

Anyways, anyone else care to share their reasons for writing?

Honestly, I used to hate writing creatively, and struggled through school in english classes. I'm still surprised I managed to scrap a C!

My interest in writing kinda happened by fluke, back on AX, I was asked to try rp'ing by Switch (I think Mike was inactive at the time r the rp section was added to AX). Admittedly, I was bad at it, really bad, but that rp didn't last very long (It was something to do with shadow creatures stealing the women and children in a village every night, and we played men trying to figure it out and stop them taking any more.) I didn't properly start getting into a flow with it until Dark Mercury started (A pokemon rp Nova created, where the players investigate strange happenings on an island, and a weird new substance that was capable of combining human and pokemon dna.) It was at that point I really started making an effort to develop characters on more than just a back story, and pushing my own boundaries to not just make characters based on myself. Given my condition, it is hard for me to put myself in someone elses shoes, so I guess its a form of escapism for me rather than just enjoying doing it.

My reasoning is similar to Mike's. Reading was always a big love of mine, to the point my mum had to withhold a new one she just brought for me so I could actually do homework. I loved exploring the worlds the characters the lore, and it's one of the reasons I love games as well, especially ones with big stories and lore.

When I would read I would take a character or an event, and start thinking 'what would I do in this situation? What would I do differently'. These ideas started to grow and change and they slowly became my stories. The Hidden World, for example, started in Melbourne based on the Mortal Instruments book by Cassandra Claire. London came from the Infernal Devices, a spin-off of the Mortal Instruments set in Victorian London.

Another reason to my writing was, arrogantly, I was a god. I had control, I had power, I could make things my way. The world's and ideas were how I saw the world around me, or how I wanted it to be. My characters are the same. They're all versions of me that are stronger, faster, more confident or badass.

So that's why I wrote. Because I don't see the world for how it is, but what it could be.

Actually had to do an assessment this year on this question, and this is what I wrote

To ask why we write is to ask why the leafs fall. It is in our nature.

Isabel Allende once said writing is a calling, not a choice, and I find this particularly true. As a kid I was first inspired to be a scientist based on the game Civilization II, but I was quickly inspired to be a writer by Emily Rodda’s Deltora Quest, my favourite book series as a child. Since as long as I could remember I loved to read, and I always had a story or a character or an idea in my head; I cannot think of a time where I didn’t have one of these things or a story related thought.

The reason I write is for one of three reasons: Because I want to create stories and worlds that I own, that no one else can touch or control; To share my stories and characters and worlds as enjoyment for others; To express myself through my words. To explore the thousands upon thousands of fragments and pieces scattered upon my characters and stories.

What generally inspires me to write is what I consume: books and comics, TV series, movies, web series and video games. Somewhere in these things I find characters or scenes that make me think what would I do differently, how would I write it differently, or how would I or a character of mine do or act in the situations and scenarios presented. To keep myself motivated to write I have a weekly word count excel sheet, but often find committing myself to the story and not getting distracted by the temptful world of the internet difficult.

What I want to do with my writing and get out of it is simply to explore the worlds and characters and ideas that live in my head, and to put them out into the world for others to read and to enjoy, but also to put ideas in their heads, to make them think and to go forth and create their own stories and characters and worlds. I would like to make a career in writing and to be known around the world for my stories, but at the same time, I’m happy to settle for a standard job and write on the side.

What I hope to achieve from this unit and this course is to further my knowledge in writing, to fix and tweak my weak points as well as to make connections within the writing world and with other writers, simply so I can have the network for communication, workshopping and general idea generation and sharing later on in life and hopefully my career.

To f*** bitches.

to get money