Why do you write, what makes writers do what they do

[jacks girl]

I don't know if this subject has ever been covered I searched back to Jan 2007


I'm not sure of the answer to this one, I'm sure there are many answers what Makes you write.

I have a drive inside to live in another world I always have had it. I've never been content to not write ever since i was at least 8. My great Imagination goes back further. Mom can tell me stories about little Jimmy from Puff & Stuff she says she had to talk to him and act at times like he was there with me, set him a plate at dinner at times.

I have a need to express whats going on in my head. I have all these people and their stories but where do they come from. Why don't I feel complete unless I'm writing. It's so compelling at times I can feel the pull to write, to create a world that I'm in complete control of. I know these people they are a part of me, a part of each cycle of my life. They are my family, they are my release, my irritation at times, I can't seem to leave them behind.

It amazes me this need, this drive. It has to be a gift I know people that never have these thoughts or desires to write or create anything. I so love this place I thank God that i found it. I feel normal now, i feel like I'm at home here. I lived most of my 40 years not knowing why I do the things I do. This place CW has explained so much to me, but yet there are many questions out there. So many stories I can't fathom how they will ever all get written.

I'm going on to long come on CW Family poor your heart out to me, tell me what makes you TICK********

[DrRita]

I'm going on to long come on CW Family poor your heart out to me, tell me what makes you TICK********

??? Jack girl . . . I'm not sure what you mean here.

I write because 1) I must 2) God's called me 3) Makes me a whole person 4) I love everything about it and couldn't get along without writing something

I'm finally over the "can I really write?" part of my life. I know I can and that God has called me and gifted me (both by the Holy Spirit and by giving me talent) and I'm so excited about what He's doing in my life. He's positioning me, surrounding me with other people important to what he's given me to do and inspiring me with extra creativity. He's got it all worked out and I just have to move along the path. Wow! God is amazing. When you are closely tied with the Creator and in a listening mode, it's amazing how much confidence you can have in what GOD can do. You sorta let go of your own insecurities, doubts and fears and let Him do whatever He needs in your life.:)

[eleazar]

Dr Rita, I really witness with your position - it is a ministry, a burning in the heart that must be expressed. It is about being a mouthpiece for an expressive God, who seeks to reveal His heart through people like us. It is a joy. It is a wonder. It is a spiritual journey. It is deep calling unto deep. It is the life of God flowing through the human heart. It is a river that starts off at ankle depth, but eventually becomes a raging torrent that sweeps us along on its inexorable tide. It is the fire that burns amongst us, without consuming our fabric. It is a voice crying in the wilderness. It is the zeal of God that cannot be quenched. It is Jeremiah's hammer and chisel. It is the voice of "I am", speaking through faltering lips, stammering tongues and inadequate vessels. It is the essence of a creator willing to work with His creation to advance His kingdom. It is the heart of the Father calling His children to share in His wonders. It is an indescribable privelege ... but if we will not write, then the very stones may have to do.

[jacks girl]

Dr. Rita I want to know exactly what you said.

Why do you personally feel driven to write, what make you want to write, how passionate are you about your writing. Do you feel that it's something that in a way you can't control, you control what you write and how you write but the need, drive, passion to write is something you can't turn off, and a gift we don't want to loose. I'm like you it Makes me a whole person , I love everything about it and couldn't :cool: get along without writing.

[Thebigguy]

I think my current project is based on the frusteration of not having any good comic books that either aren't steeped in occult or smut. (So even thought it's more a longended story rather than a comic book.) I thought an idea of characters with a little more depth than that of DC or Marvel might make the trip worth while. When I was a kid I use to watch the super friends and Doctor Who, but the good guys always won. What if they lost? What do you do with devistating failures how do you pick up the pieces and try again? Do you?

[YHVHKaTet99]

I write because it stirrs something in my soul. Yes, that may sound kind of goofy, but I suspect that everyone here is here because deep down you can't not write. Writing, however the story or blog or whatever it is comes out, completes something in me. I know God has set this in my heart, that this is what I'm meant to do. I've always been drawn to jobs that involve writing or reading. I'd love to run a little used-book shop here in town even though Lubbock seems choked with used book shops. Bookseller by day, writer by night...sounds like a third-tier superhero. :cool:

[tlm]

because deep down you can't not write.

Exactly!

Besides, it calms all the voices in my head! lol

[Lookin^Up]

I've been writing practically since the third grade. (Talk about ancient history!) I wasn't sure about the fifth item in the list. All of my sci-fi stories are printed in one form or another and arranged in binders. Does that count as "published"?

[jacks girl]

You can count those as published if you want, at least it is a finished work and that is more than some of us can say about our work. I assume that just because you are published doesn't mean your making money, or may be it does.

[DrRita]

I agree with everyone here . . . and Merry you said it right . . . How DO people survive and not write???

Jacksgirl . . . Since God made me the way I am by design, the deep part of me is driven to create. I started with dance at 4. I was born a dancer, took ballet, tap, creative and my soul needed to express itself through dance. It was as if my very being used my body to express the beauty of my soul. I still dance and it's still my first love, but now I'm rather too old to dance like my soul wants. I began writing a long time ago too and have expressed another part of me though writing. Since I've been unable to express my deepest emotions through dance, I began praying for God to transfer that deep cry in my to my pen. Since that time I've found I MUST write even more urgently than before. It's my soul's expression, it's ME.

[DrRita]

Well said Eleazar!!

[righter1]

:) This is a great question!

I STARTED writing actively when I was about 13. I think that qualifies as youth. Before that, I tried to write different Disney cartoons that I liked to watch (Rescue Rangers was a big one for me.) But, when I was about 13 is when it took off.

Today, I mostly write because I have these characters and ideas in my head that desperately want out. It's also something that 'completes' me in a way--and it is so satisfying to have a completed story in hand or on disc. Almost better than... well, I'm sure you can guess. ;) But, I also write my stories to help get a different worldview into the mainstream--abstinence before marriage is a big one for me.

Anyway, there's my two cents. :)

[pajarita_deDios]

for me...the physical act of writing...anything, is calming...in class I find myself writing word for word what my professor is saying, just because I love the sensation of writing...or when watching films for a class, I'll write the dialogue as I hear it...I have no idea why. When it comes to my stories though, the fiction...I can't help it, I just want to, I just have to...like many others have mentioned, it's like a burning, this desire that flames so hot, I have to act on it...

[aitak]

...or when watching films ...I'll write the dialogue as I hear it...I have no idea why. When it comes to my stories though, the fiction...I can't help it, I just want to, I just have to......

yeah, amen...pajarita, i think if you and i lived in the same town (or even the same country!) we'd hang out. ive read a couple of your posts tonight and i totally relate.

i have written for as long as i can remember...even as a really little kid i used to have these notebooks that i just scribbled in, pretending to write when i didnt even know how. i can still remember it.

since becoming a wife and mother i find it hard to get the time and the pen and paper get an airing far less often than my computer keyboard...but i do have a constant nagging sense in the pit of my stomach that i need to be writing. eventually/periodically, it gets to the point where it becomes a deafening roar and i whip out the pen and notebook and just write in a frenzy...i can't help it. it's more than just an impulse- it's like if i don't write, i'm not who God made me to be, and therefore i'm not really alive. i feel a bit the same, though not to the same degree, with my music and art.

[Halton080]

hi all,
i was in high school when i start building some shorts poems,i start to write some "analogical phrases" what ever come in mind and i have collection notebook of it when i was about to enter college, i start writing one novel when i was already in college, but sad i had lost them all, a novel never finish, 25 yrs later, i found one page yellow paper of that novel almost eaten by rats, i read and i was shock it had come from me,i cant believe on those time one ignorant homebody type had wrote it, it come from my "own head,"where in the world did i get those ideas, the creativity to create scenes, and where in the world did i get that kind of drive?, when that time i was so naive, so introvert type and with very limited book source, i also found some of my poetry and i cant believe it was i who have that kind of mind who wrote it when during that yrs. i have very limited exposure and the only book i have read that time that's strike me was HIDING PLACE of corrie and that time i never never dream of becoming a writer then.

Then i remember, that there are really those times or nigths i was so high with so many ideas, that i cant sleep and have the urge to to immediately write it or have it down in pen and paper.
since childhood i was always in love with every new clean notebook that i even love to bring on bed..as long as i have new clean notebook fresh notebook i can scribe anything on it, was drawn to scribe anything on it,,sometimes sketch..
i think it is where a writer's due when one cant help the drive or to be drawn onto something or snap ideas that at time we sometimes never expected.
as if we are born to be in love with paper and pen, lols.

up until now i dont know if i can make myself a writer or could become a writer, all i know is that there is something infusing in inside me, and some had tell me i had gifts of it i should not bury nor GOD would want me to bury.

i dont know, what ever...my time now is so limited compare before, my brain had many pre occuaptions..but for sure there is something here..

i wonder if during that time i already have pc and net and this wonderful site,,what it could have been to me?
my net now is only dial up sometimes browsing is irritating.

honestly i try to write now, revive that novel, or simply write whatever comes again on mind,..i write to relax, meditate and i admit to know if it's really meant or my dues or destiny..like someone says here....my design...
i dont know,,just sharing and opinion..i think writing is also a form of meditation specially if what you write is personal memoirs.

Happy writing to ALL!!

[ProfessorAlan]

I write because I enjoy it -- it is more often agony than ecstasy, but the esctasy can be exquisite.

[Phy]

I write to use my gifts / talents for God in a way only I can.

I write to write out the things in my head.

I write to perpetuate the cycle of reading / writing.

I write because I can.

I write because I can't stop.

I write.

[mel3]

I am a compulsive, impulsive and obsessive writer.
I write because it is who I am.

[pajarita_deDios]

haha probably aitak..we seem to be running on the same thread of mind! I love that personalities can't be supressed, even by the lack of face to face conversation :)

I think everyone who has posted to this thread is right on...everyone's doing it because it's embedded into their person. Professor, you're right too! It is agony...The worst kind...It's the kind that tortures you, but won't let you stop.

[Lookin^Up]

Stop writing? Those two words don't even belong together! Even when I stop tapping away at my keyboard, or stop scribbling in my notepad, I'm still writing in my head. Asking an author to stop writing is like asking a bird to stop flying. It can't be done!

[writegirl1949]

For me, writing is my heart's desire and I'm blessed that God decided to grant me that desire.

And, like many have said, I can't not write.

Blessings, Francine

[DearPrudence]

I thought about this "born to write" idea the other day. I can't say that I ever really felt that.
Or that there was some message I felt driven to share.

I thought I would be a fashion illustrator when I was young, art was all my rage, but later I traded in the pencils for rulers, as I found a mature dream take hold: my love for teaching.

I always wrote, but the idea of sharring with others is still only a few years in.
I think I will always write for myself, appealing to an audience is a hassle, but it is nice to get outside my own mind from time to time.

Poetry has always been my flavor. I like the freedom it offers.
A writer and a poet are not the same thing, two different natures, and my nature expresses itself most clearly thru poetry; its the only way the world makes any sense to me.

[melw]

i probably should have said i started in my youth, but seriously i started when i was 27 years old. Too me that is later in life.

As a child reading was not a urge but an obligation. As i grew i started to love it, but wasn't good at English so i never considered writing.

That i my thought. I think of writing everyday. I can't write much more now cause i am at work

MEL