Monday, October 19, 2009

Why Do You Write?

This is an easy one for me. I write for the joy of slipping into worlds of my own creation where I decide who lives or dies and who gets the guy. My perfectly imperfect heroines still get their Happily Ever After every time...eventually. ;) Half the fun is getting to that HEA, however. Writing romance gives me hope. As my characters work through their problems, sometimes I work through my own, too, even if I don't always realize it.

What about you? What brings you back to the page time after time? The sheer love of creation? Money? (Nothing wrong with that!) The feedback you get from readers?

Inquiring minds want to know. ;)

And to whet...your appetite on a Monday....


13 comments:

J.K. Coi said...

You know...I'm not really sure why, especially when it's so hard. Painfully hard sometimes. But I love the challenge. I love the worlds I can create and the characters who fill them. I love meeting new people because of my writing, and the way I feel like I've done something special when someone tells me they've connected with my stories. :)

Samantha Hunter said...

I'll second JK -- sometimes I don't know why, either, when it's an uphill battle.

But then when a reader likes my book, or get to sit and talk with other writers I know and we can talk about writing or books we love for hours, or how it feels when a story comes together just right, or when I solve a writing problem, or I see a new cover, or I get a check in the mail (hey, that counts, LOL), I remember why. :)

Sam

Super_Kiwi said...

I love the creation, and I love the escapism of it. And like you say Cari, I can see some of the issues I write about, or how I write my characters, ends up reflecting back in my real life. That's the real reward. :)

As the others said, sometimes its painfully hard but when you sit and talk to someone that's read it and was effected by it, it makes it all worth it.

Part of me loves to talk about writing and people's stories, I love talking plot with people, whether its my own stories or theirs, the figuring out parts are often the most fun.

It's the execution that the hardest. LOL. BUt for now, I just love creating something, and in some cases it's things I wish would actually happen. If I always can't have a HEA in RL, I'll make sure of it in my writing ;)

Kaily Hart said...

I write because ... I have to. I have so many characters and scenes and action in my head, it would probably explode otherwise. I used to jsut play out scenes and stories in my head until those characters finally disappeared (always to be replaced by others). Now, I try to capture them on paper as quickly as possible. They can tell me something at any time (often while I am driving). I know it probably makes me sound crazy. No-one else but another writer would understand that's for sure.

And the picture? I keep staring at it till I realized I was waiting for the water to drain away. Huh. Never happened.

Shawna Thomas said...

Hi Cari and Tara,

Why do I write? I don't know. I suddenly can't think straight. I'm waiting for the tide to go back out.

I've decided writing is an addiction. ;D

I really thought about this once. I put in a lot of time and energy into my writing and it's not for the money... Most writers know they will never get to quit the day job. It's not for fame. (I giggled). Confession: I'm horribly shy.

It's not easy. Writing is hard, harder than I imagined it ever could be.

I write because there are characters that need to speak through me. Worlds that need to be born. I write, ultimately, I think, because I'm a writer.

And something else I just learned. All it takes is one reader to say wow... and it's all worth it. : )

Monica Kaye said...

I write because I have to or I would go insane.

Wendi Zwaduk and Megan Slayer said...

I write because the characters in my head will get out one way or another, so why not help them find their happy ever after? Plus its a fun way to get rid of (or cause) stress, and it's exciting to know you created something that brightends the life of another person (and I don't mean that in a self-inflating way). If you can touch someone with your writing, it's a really cool thing.

Oh and what a pic! Gimme a fan!

Wendi

Taryn Elliott said...

Because I'm stoopid.
LOL

I wish I could say I'm lying, but I'm not. I have to be out of my ever lovin' mind to do this. But, I do love it. I crave the torture on a daily basis. Life and family gets in the way sometimes, and then sometimes when you have the time to write, you just can't. Therein lies the frustration.

But then you get that night where 2600 words pours out of you in 2.5hrs...and you go...OH, right. That's why I do this.

Great question, Cari.

And GREAT picture.
Yeesh.

Shelley Munro said...

I think writing is the hardest job I've ever had. So what do I like about it? I like to create my own worlds and characters. I like being my own boss and working my own hours. I like the contact with other writers and readers. I like getting my check. I enjoy all those things yet some days I wonder what on Earth I'm doing Writing is full of huge highs and soul-destroying lows. In fact, this year I even thought about giving up...

Lia Slater said...

Hi Cari,
I love the molding and creating. The aha! moments. The finished product. I just love everything. :-)

Samantha Hunter said...

Shelly, I have told Cari that I think of quitting at least a couple of times a year. ;) Usually after a bastion of Rs or when I am waiting on something and waiting, and waiting.

Honestly, while people dream of quitting their dayjobs, there are so many days I regret quitting mine, and then, not.

I love working from home, and with my husband -- he works from home, too, and I have to say, if it weren't for that time, I might have thrown in the towel a while ago. But I love the lifestyle. Still, having a regular job would take so much income pressure off, and I think that would probably be good for my writing, actually.

When I am busy, have had good communication with editors, agent, etc have projects in the hopper, I am happy. I can be a writing fool. There's nothing better.

But when it's quiet, and your work sits out there for months with no replies, it's like the world has forgotten you, (oh, and have forgotten to pay you, too -- when it is your day job, and you wait until Nov to be paid for something you handed in in June, how could we not think of quitting?)

But then there are all of those plusses. They're enough, for now. But I hear you, Shelly, really.

Sam

Helen Hardt said...

Despite the subjectivity, the rejection, the writer's block that inevitably surfaces at the wrong time, I write because I can't not write.

Make sense?

Shelley Munro said...

Sam - yes, the waiting really gets me. The R's and the waiting are what contributed to the thoughts of giving up this year. Like you, I'm happiest when I'm working and things are happening!