The Writing Life: Why Do You Write?

Feb 21, 2008 - 09:24 AM PST

If I don't write to empty my mind, I go mad. ~Lord Byron

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia. ~E. L. Doctorow

Until recently I never thought about why I write. I just wrote. I wrote my first short story when I was six (and that may sadly be the only thing J.K. Rowling and I will ever have in common). I kept a journal, wrote letters, won essay contests, and published poetry. I moved on to writing legal briefs, and from there on to writing newspaper stories, magazine articles, and short fiction. Finally, I birthed a novel that was published.

But why? In retrospect, my motivation is close to Byron’s. So many thoughts compete for space in my head (a piece of a potential plot, a sliver of insight, an observation, a query, or a pithy phrase uttered by someone else) that my brain often feels as if it might explode. And then suddenly it does, erupting with a focused energy that sends me sprinting to my computer in the middle of the night. I swipe cocktail napkins from unsuspecting bartenders, and scribble on the backs of cash-register receipts I pull from the trash. When this compulsion strikes, urgency requires that I use the most convenient instrument available.

As Issac Asimov said, “I write for the same reason I breathe: because if I didn’t, I would die.”

Not all writers function this way. Truman Capote said, “To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music the words make.” It’s not always about exorcising demons; one can write for the sheer joy of engaging in the creative process.

For a writer who doesn’t care about going public, either can be reason enough. But when you write with the hope that someday what you’ve written will be read by someone other than your mother and significant other, you also write because you want to be heard.

I experienced this joy when I started to receive emails from people I didn’t know, living in places I’d never been, telling me that they’d liked my novel. Like the Whos of Dr. Seuss’ Whoville, I had shouted, “I am here!” from my own tiny speck of the universe and had been heard. It was a rush.

Why do YOU write? Please share your reasons here. Others might look at their own writing differently because your thoughts cause them to reflect upon their own creative process, and then you’ll have been heard, too.

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