Thursday, April 22, 2010

Why do you write?

What drives you to sit in front of your computer or grab pen/pencil and paper?
Did you choose to do this or did it choose you?
When did you know you were a writer?
When did you first call yourself a writer?

7 comments:

  1. Why do I write? Great question. I'm not certain whether I chose to write or it chose me. However, the one thing I'm certain of is what drives me to write. For lack of a better word, I'll call it addiction. If I don't sit and write at least a little every day, I become cranky and edgy. And everyone knows, when the mama's not happy, nobody's happy!

    I'm not certain that I knew I was a writer until I started writing. Looking back though, it was probably always in me. I would read books and comment on how the ending could have been better, certain things the characters should have done, and whether or not the author's style was too wordy.

    When did I first call myself a writer? October 2009, when I attended my first conference. (The New Jersey RWA's Conference.) I attended it three weeks after the completion of my first novel.

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  2. I'm the same way as Beth. If I don't write I get cranky. I've always loved to read and wanted to write.

    Didn't start doing so until we moved to the central coast, 18 years ago. I decided to just go for it!

    From the time I put words to paper, I called myself a writer. I called myself an author when my first book was published, that was in 2001.

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  3. My first paid published article was at age twelve in a Grit newspaper. The check was only $2, but I saved the article for years, feeling proud.

    For me, growing up in a house full of noisy siblings, writing was and is a means of getting my voice heard. As a freelance writer I'm allowed to choose my subjects for newspaper and magazine columns, which propel me into places and situations I might otherwise shun, bringing excitement and adventure. Mostly, it's people that motivate me, meeting new and intersting characters, some whose uniqueness well be honored by their appearance in one of my novels.

    Novels are a new motivation entirely. What an awesome sense of creative power, akin to "playing God", the making up of a story, controlling people, events, albeit between the pages.

    Seems my writing is all about ME. Attention seeking. Power grabbing. And, yet, I do get great writer feedback. "I'm so motivated and inspired by your article..." And so forth. Fulfillment. Connecting to people. That's why I write.

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  4. I always wanted to write but I grew into it during my professional life as a librarian. I always knew I wasn't a "creative" writer, though. I couldn't write a poem or a mystery if my life depended on it. But, nonfiction, science for the public, now that's another matter...that is my calling.

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  5. I hear these voices in my head.....Seriously, an idea comes to me (usually while I'm in the shower) and the idea morphs until it's a "full blown gotta sit down and put it on paper idea". Not sure where the Muse hangs out when I want her to give me some feedback, but she is persistent and a downright nag once she gets going.

    I wrote my first poem/song when I was around 6. Mostly, I loved making stuff up. Sometimes I even got away with it.

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  6. Been writing since I was a child. Had my first play performed in third grade. I just enjoy sitting down & writing to see what comes out. I'm a 'seat of the pants' writer, which means I never plot/outline anything.

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  7. I wonder who that "Anonymous" was! Sounds like we have a lot in common. As a child I was anxious to hurry up and learn to write so I could write poems and stories.

    I don't remember my first poems, but the one I do remember was a very long poem about a dodo bird. I also remember writing a play about a rabbit and a fairy.

    The first story I remember writing was in the 2nd or 3rd grade, titled The Ghost That Loved Judy. I was greatly influenced by my mother, grandmother and older sister who read a lot of Daphne DuMaurier!

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