Cause Master Will Kill Me If I Don't.

 

Whatever Do You Mean? :awesome

 

God the dreaded school Essay. I have to write about four a month.

 

I write to vent. Of course, that means I generally write poetry, instead of stories, but I do write both.

I've never actually posted a story, but Im working my ass off on an idea and plotline right now that might eventually end up posted--if my interest in it stays high enough. I work with ideas because I'd like to see a story done in a way that appeals to me, like many others.

 

I started writing as a kind of natural progression... reading canon, reading fanfic, joining in (forums etc), writing fanfic.

Maybe there are people out there that can read some of the crap passing as fanfiction without thinking "Hell, even I could do better than that..." - but I wasn't one of them.

I started by joining in some role playing on potterficweeklly's forums, and decided I wasn't unhappy with what I'd been writing, so did a little more writing, and then a little more. Now I'm about 68k into my version of a book 6 replacement, and am still happy with how my writing is going.

Do I write for myself? Yeah, that's part of it. I admire many of the fanfic authors ability to write excellent stories, and I aspire to develop my skills to see if I can get close to that level.

Do I write for others? Not so much. I do write for reviews though. I started writing during a lull in finding good fics to read, but now that I've got a backlog, it's the thought of reviews and acknowledgement that has me writing more chapters instead of reading the stuff in my watchlists that's building up.

Why do I write? I suppose for the reasons above. I have a good imagination and I wanted to find out if it was good enough to come up with decent stories.

A lot of the other replies I've read so far include answers I could as easily have given as well.

Cheers,

Brian

 

Hyper active imagination + insomniac = Me coming up with a couple hundred ideas every week (no joke) and the vast majority of them aren't worth shit but once in a while I get one that has my fingers twitching. I started writing for myself and me only but a fair amount of pressure sees me posting my crap.
Now? It's still mostly for myself...but reviews are nice for stroking egos, or killing it.

 

Mostly because it entertains me from time to time. Sadly, It doesn't seem to engage me as much as other things do. maybe because I'm not particularly skilled at it.

Even so, I like to sit in front of my computer and squeeze a few brain cells when I feel up to it.

 

I write because plot bunnies eat me alive if I don't. I'd be kidding myself if I said that I don't like reviews, but they're not my main reason for writing. I write because of the eternal "what if" when plots come trouping into my head and take over my fingertips. I write things for which I know has no audience or limited audience. Midnight Watch is a prime example. I came up with the idea and toyed with it for over a year. As Forever Knight is a fairly obscure television show, I was pretty sure that not many would read a FK/HP crossover, but the idea bothered me for so long that I started writing it anyway. Sometimes, I write to piss people off.

I suppose that requires more explanation. In my original fandom, there was a certain group of fanficcers who thought that they should be running everything. They had a habit of annexing new writers who showed even a smidge of talent and then dictating how and what they wrote. I resisted. A good many of the stories I wrote at the time were anti-them. I refused to write gushy romances with excessive introspection. Instead, I wrote more adventure-themed stories with more action-oriented plots. I had a find time tweaking their tails.... So yeah, I've written stuff simply to piss people off, even though it was a long time ago.

Laura (who has finally figured out where the next chapter of Midnight Watch should be going)

 

For fun and relaxation.

 

I write for myself. I've always wanted a way to express my own ideas into a tangible form so I don't lose them. I tried art, but I lack talent. I tried music, but- again- I lack talent. I ended up writing simply because- with all the reading I have done over the years- I have gained enough skill to overcome my lack of talent.

It works.

 

Why do I write:

My muse refuses to allow boredom to set in and besieges me with countless random thoughts until something catches my attention. At that point my imagination grabs it and runs with it, and my subconscious compels me to write it up to see if it was really as awesome as it initially seemed to be in my head. Usually after a day or two I decide it wasn't all that great after all, but there are the occasional gems.

 

I suppose I write since I enjoy doing so. It's also because I sometimes get an idea which just won't leave me alone and will remain in my mind for years sometimes, being refined and planned until I feel it's time to actually put the proverbial pen to paper.

Do I write for others? I suppose I do somewhat. Knowing people are reading what I've written is an extremely strange concept, yet it forces me to get on and write. Reviews are a motivational tool that make me get my arse in gear, but I would write even if I didn't get reviews, as proved by a 60000 word piece on my computer that will never make it off my harddrive. It's just nice hearing that people are actually enjoying what I've written.

 

I write because I like getting people hooked on something I created.

Fin.

 

In that case, you should go grow marijuana on your rooftop or something.

The pay's much better.

 

Because I do. Writing is like breathing, it's something I do, have done and don't to stop.

I think my earliest story was about a "doggie (Don't knock the spelling, I'm quoting.) who ran a way". I was six or seven. My mother has it in the closet of shame somewhere. (You all know of the closet, all parents have a place where they keep the things that will embarrass you the most when you come back to visit.)

Raven

 

My dream is to publish a novel someday before I die of old age. Not one of those trashy ones that makes you want to burn it immediately either. As I’m currently not much of a writer, I’m just trying to improve my skills.
Why I really started writing is hard to tell. I’m an insomniac and when abstaining from sleep I usually fantasize about my favorite genre, namely fantasy. One day I just got up and drew a map of a fantasy world, you know one of those Tolkien-style ones. Then I wrote 150 pages of chapter one for “my book”. I Was 14 at the time, I believe. Every single of those pages sucked major ass so I threw them on the bottom of a shelf somewhere and decided to take a look at how other people did it. That’s how I found fanfiction.net. After a couple of years reading fanfics I finally published and abandoned my first one.
Reviews are great, but it’s kind of a putdown when you know that 300 people visited and 1 reviewed. Ah, just a hint to polish my skills I Guess.