Why Writers Write
"Writing provides a pocket of time in the present moment to reflect, digest, and to think deeply."
Yesterday's post established that writers gotta write. Today we'll tackle the why. For the sweet love of all that's holy, why would a person sit alone in a room, pounding out story after story without the guarantee that any of it will ever be published, admired, or even that the dang computer won't crash and all will be lost? What drives a writer to write?
The reasons are as varied as the writers themselves. Here are a what a few big names have to say about why they write . . .
Neil Gaiman
" . . . you get to feel like both the creator and the audience. Everything is suddenly both obvious and surprising… and it’s magic and wonderful and strange.”
Lord Byron
“If I don’t write to empty my mind, I go mad,” he once confessed.
Stephen King
Says that in the end all writing is about “enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well.”
Gloria Steinem
“Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald
He didn't write because he wanted to say something; he wrote because he had something to say.
So those are the big names. What about the nobodies, the wannabes, the little fish in the big writerly pond? The website Author's Promoter recently did a survey with 100 authors and here is the breakdown:
30% To educate, influence and help others
15% As a way to express themselves
13% Because they have to
10% Because it's therapeutic and pleasurable
8% Because of their imagination
And then there's a bunch of other assorted reasons that came in at lesser percentages. Again, this shows that there's no one reason why a writer writes. That's horrible news for someone who wants to know THE absolute answer, because there isn't one.
But it's also great news for the varied writers out there who write for myriad reasons, to let them know they're not alone in having a unique reason to write.
So rest assured, little writers. Your drive to write appears to be an inborn desire, like your love for chocolate or hatred of rutabagas. You are completely normal. You are a writer.