XD I’ll have to remember that one!
I learned to write well because I sucked at talking to people. It was a defense mechanism against a lot of people in my life who would cut me off before I finished what I was about to say and finished my sentence for me with the wrong words, turned my words against me, took me too literally, wrote me off as an idiot, or just refused to listen to or acknowledge me.
I found that I could communicate a thousand times better when I could sit down and think about what I was going to say and say it in such a way that it couldn’t be turned against me by conversational terrorists or people who thought they knew what I was trying to say and finished my sentences for me.
In other words, I guess it was a skill born of living in a hostile environment. I had things I wanted to say and I made myself heard the only way I could.
After a while though, writing became something of a compulsion because I was holding back so many thoughts and feelings. It became the only way I could really release what was within my soul. I tried visual arts and music but I was never good enough with those to say everything I wanted to say.
I get distressed now when I can’t sit and write when I feel like it, and when I have something important to say, 99 times out of 100 I’ll say it in writing. I came out to my parents that way, I initiated a relationship with my fiance that way, and I negotiated nearly every important decision in my life that way.
Writing isn’t just a part of life for me. Writing is life, and if I lost my ability to write I know for sure I would lose my will to live along with it.
It’s my way of painting a picture, or a series of pictures. I like to joke by saying ‘I am an artist, I just paint my pictures with words.’ Plus it’s fun.
Not a very in depth answer is it?
XD Doesn’t have to be, so long as the reason is ~yours~.
I more or less write because I want to have something to be proud of that I can say it is exclusively my own achievement. That, and it’s just flat out fun to do. For me, anyways.
I don’t know if I know the answer to this anymore.
I’m writing for the free books!
Ha! Yeah, this too!
I write because I can’t not write. There’s too much stuff going on in my brain, and it’s a lot more peaceful when I can get it out via writing.
I suppose I will throw my own two cents in here since this topic is still fresh and I skimmed over it briefly in another thread. I believe the film analysis phrase would be auteur ( though I could be wrong since it is sadly not my forte ) but most would call it “art for art’s sake”. I am a firm believer that my writing is done purely for the deed and not for the monetary value that comes with it. I stand by the idea that while it is rather pleasant to get a paycheck, that paycheck is meaningless when you feel like you’ve squandered your life away. Of course it’s not a breeze to do what you love but at the same time I would never see myself as anything but a storyteller and while I tend to wander from craft to craft, I will always return to storytelling in some manner or form. That’s just how I see it though and I’m sure every other way is quite an acceptable way to view things. I feel that as long as it makes you feel whole go do what you do best and don’t let anyone get to you.
I’ve been working on this documentary about poetry for the past few months. In the course of this process I asked a friend of mine why he was a poet. He answered, “I’m a poet because of I have to be.” I’m mostly a poet, but I also do a little bit of fiction. I’m a writer because I have to be. I love what I do. I touch on a lot of difficult subjects in my writing, mostly due to them being something that’s happened to me in my past. In a way it’s connected me to my readers because of what we’ve encountered. Then again, if I didn’t have the readers I probably would still do what I do. It’s sort of natural now.
Because it’s the one time in my life I feel like I’m doing what I was put on this earth to do.
I write 'cause I can’t not write.
I write, therefore I am. So if I write not, am I not?
Because there are stories I’d like to see told, and if I don’t get around to telling them, I don’t know who will.