Why do you write? Why don''t you or why dont you anymore?

Inspired by Uno's response on another Post.

I'ma pull a Sue: I'm not going first.

I write to help answer questions if I can. I write to sell and buy items.
Right now I don't write much because I am LAMBING!!! and every extra minute I have is spent cleaning or sleeping...

I used to write poems when I was younger, but when the kids came along I don't have the quiet time to write anymore. Also my poems were usually about issues in my teenage life, and those issue just are not important anymore. Now I read poems to my kids.

Hidden River wrote:I write to help answer questions if I can. I write to sell and buy items.
Right now I don't write much because I am LAMBING!!! and every extra minute I have is spent cleaning or sleeping...

Whole different kind of writers block! Filled with cuteness!

I used to write quite a bit (mostly poetry) to express my internal feeling and thoughts mostly I suppose. As a young person and young adult I was very shy and quite introverted so kept most of my inner thoughts and feeling very private. As I have matured and worked out more I've opened up in many ways. I don't write nearly as much as I used to and in some ways I think that is because I have a new avenue for my inner world as I am much more open now to talk about whatever is going on inside me. Some good, some bad here I suppose. Much more comfortable in inter personal relationships but much less expressive in such creative ways as writing. I still get the urge to write a poem once in a while but life,s busy-ness seems to get in the way. That's about it for me!

I used to write a lot. Have had some of my poetry published in a large anthology, and in other places. Have had my non-fiction pieces published in various outlets across North America. Have been a regular columnist in a paper. Have been a newspaper reporter. Have been a newspaper editor. Somewhere in this house I have a huge bin full of my clippings. Maybe my kids will get a kick out of them someday.

I've even finished a couple of really terrible fiction novels that will never see the light of day.

Why don't I any more? I guess I just don't want to. I used to have a lot of words in my head that needed to be written down; but making writing my full-time JOB rather than just a hobby/supplementary income kinda sucked the fun out of it. Or maybe I just ran out of words. I don't seem have so many words or stories in my head these days.

Although I did compose part of a humorous poem in my head earlier today, called "The time the hippies came to town." I was amused. Didn't write it down, though.

I do still write the occasional article, if requested, and I can spit out a press release in no time flat.

I am a paper fiend. A pen fiend. I lose my grip on reality in Staples. Packages and piles and boxes of paper. Lined, plain, graph. And those journals...some people get weak kneed over shoes, not me, for me it's a leather bound journal full of blank pages. Pure linen luxury.

For Christmas a dear friend gave me a very gorgeous rtisan leather bound journal. I unwrapped it and it took my breath away. A diamond ring would not have been as wonderous to my eyes. I run my hand over the leather, untie the slim leather thong that bind it shut, riffle the pages, smell it, close it, walk away. I cannot bring myself to spoil it with my writing.

Because I burn my writing. In the furnace.

Writing is a sensory pleasure, the act of moving a lovely, flowing pen across good quality paper. I am a compulsive doodler. When on the phone, I doodle on anything I can reach. Important papers are strategically tucked away where I will not deface them when I doodle.

I doodle words, phrases and later read them and wonder what Dr. Freud would make of the things I write. Are they significant? Meaningful? OF all the words I could have chosen, why did I choose those? Computering has cut down on my doodling. Can't type and doodle at the same time.


This is not my inner motive for writing, but it is a big part. I love paper, pens and all things like that. I think the physical act of writing is like little, tiny yoga, and good for the body and soul. I wish deeply that I had something beautiful to write in my beautiful gift journal. For now, it is empty.

So I write because I find a pen on paper very satisfying. The other half of why, the inner part...harder to say. I think for the same reasons as most of you.

authenticfarm wrote:

Although I did compose part of a humorous poem in my head earlier today, called "The time the hippies came to town." I was amused. Didn't write it down, though.
.

Hmm...was it based on real life events?

Like Uno I horde paper and stationary supplies. I think it goes back to my mom's insistence we 'keep nice things for good'. Mom grew up in the depression.

Unlike Uno I hate writing. Abhor it. Endlessly printing the same tiny letter over and over again to make it perfect. Having whole pages ripped from my scribblers by parents and teachers and having to do it over again really take the joy out of things. Writing and re writng Christmas thank you notes over until perfect. i dreaded the onset of the Christmas hilidays. I remember a grade 9 teacher who questioned my gender because girls were supposed to have neat printing. Jerk.

Computers changed all that. Now I can express myself and not worry that someone will focus on the means and not the message.

Now that is a very good question, Sweetened, or should I say questions. Think some just like to ramble, others like to read, smiling.

I am a rambler. In person I am kind of a quiet type. Mostly I will listen when involved in a conversation, so I am a very good listener. I find most people like to talk, I like to listen, so this is what I do. Now set paper and pen infront of me, then I like to express in the written hand. Put a keyboard infront of me, then watch out. Holy rumblin' rumbles happen. I cannot stop myself sometimes when my fingers begin to flow over the keyboard. It is fun. I can type nearly as quickly as I can form the words in my mind, so to meander on with those fingertips, displaying what is going on in my mind, is kind of a cool thing. So I do. Why not?

I do not have a very interesting life. Yep, really I don’t, well I don’t think I do anyways. But sometimes I have things that I like to talk about. Like little events that occur. When I begin to recount these events, it seems to me that they become more interesting. It seems to me that something that started out as a very small thing in real life, when I set fingers to motion, turns out to be actually a little more interesting than I thought it was. Why? I don’t know. Maybe I use colourful words that make the thoughts more interesting. Who knows. I never tell tall tales, the tales I tell are all true, I do not embellish, that is not a good thing, I think that borders lying, so I do not embellish, but do use lots of words to make the topic more interesting. So that is what I do I guess. I like to show pictures of what I am talking about. So that also adds another dimension to things that I may tell a story about. And of course, this then makes the writing even more long. See what I am talking about? I meant to make a very short post, to explain why I like to write and looky where I have gone with it....off into that wild blue yonder, imagination in tow. Telling others of things I do is to me, just kind of neat thing. Why? No clue, but it is something that I enjoy to do, so I do do that. Is this the type of response you were looking for? Have a beautiful and awesome day, CynthiaM.

I've done a bit but just don't seem to have the time these days. Really must make myself sit down and spend more time at the computer.

I used to write when I was late teen early adult. I no longer write. I used to write to let things out, I didnt know any other way. I needed to release the emotions or feelings and that is how I did. I stopped because I was proud of what I had accomplished and had put it into a small book (very small) and showed it to my mother. She told me how dark and ugly it was, how if I ever showed it to anyone I would be sent to a mental institution because of what they would think. Trick was, it was what I thought of myself at that time. So, I stopped writing and didnt pick it up again. Not until my daughter died. Now what I write I rarely show. For me, writing is a way to rid myself of negativity.

Pf, thats very sad, what happened between you and your mother.

I write novels. Thats right. Hundreds of pages of scribble and type. Mostly scribble, because I can type faster than I can think, so I end up sitting there with a dumb look on my face for periods of time while my brain catches up with my fingers. What do I write? Mostly sci-fi/fantasy. Why? Because I love creating. I'm a quiet person by nature, and my ideas aren't always heard, so its also a way to put more abstract concepts and philosophies into existance.

Someday I'll write something publishable (or so I intend anyway!) Right now though, I'm learning. When I go back and re-read some of my stories, I roll my eyes or laugh, but thats how you learn.

Also, I am a victim of the book/writing utensil fetish. Because I hand write so much, I'm very particular about my pens and writing surfaces.

I dont write as much as I used to, many other things on the go. But I still plunk (or scribble) away at it.

I don't write anymore because I'm intimidated. I have 2 books souring in darkness because I can't bring myself to finish writing them.

The skill that once saved my life from bullies is now haunted by the voices I've never shut up in my head from those same experiences.

"Iiiiiironyyyy"

I suppose I could define my thoughts on why. I used to write a lot when I was younger. Now, mostly due to time, I don't.
I think I will just say it the way the answer formed in my head in my most often, blunt, and simple way.

Sometimes you just gotta get shit out of your head.

Writing is a good way for this to happen.

Schipperkesue wrote:Hmm...was it based on real life events?

Yep, but not the one you're thinking of.

I've got a vegan cousin.

I'm so ashamed.

Double funny, AF!