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Why do you write?
I started writing because my older siblings wrote a lot and I thought it looked fun, but the reason why I write now has evolved quite a lot from that.
Yeah, writing is still really fun, but writing has become so much more than that. Stories have helped me understand myself more, the world more, people more, have helped me through hard times, and I think has made me a better person.
Sure, a lot of times books and movies were a nice escape, but they also helped me see so many different perspectives in life. The characters’ perspective as well as writer’s perspective.
I’ve read and watched enough stories that no matter what I go through, there’s a character that I’ve read or watched that has gone through a similar thing. Whether they made good or bad choices during that situation, it doesn’t matter. It still helped me understand the situation and the people in that situation better.
Without stories, I would be a lot more ignorant, less empathetic, and timid.
So that was a lot of talk to simply say, the reason why I write is because I’m inspired. I’m inspired by both good and bad stories. I’m inspired by the beauty of the wonderful stories that have given me so much, and I’m inspired by the wasted potential of bad stories.
Yeah, is would be awesome if people some day were helped in some little way by my writing, but even if my eyes were the only ones to see my writing, I would still write.
Because I’m inspired by the wonderfully complex world God has created and the artists who create even more beauty and meaning out of it.
I didn’t mean for my answer to be that long, but oh well, haha.
Why do you write? Big or small, it doesn’t matter.
I write for self expression. I’m a not say very much kind of gal. So when I struggle to express myself verbally I write it out via poetry. Then it just flows onto the paper almost effortlessly. It helps me, and others around me who I share my writing with, understand myself better.
As for writing stories. I do it for fun. But I also always want their to be a great moral or lesson, whether it’s big or small, in everything that I write and to give God the glory through it.
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." - Gandalf
@kathleenramm Deep question, deep question. As a kid my sister was the one who tried out writing first, and I said that I didn’t think I’d ever want to write, just read stories. Well, one day I grew bored of all the books I read, and decided to write my own.
And now I’m here and hoooooo boi I don’t know if I’m living a nightmare or the dream haha.
I don’t think for my early years I really found a reason for writing. I had a story to tell, so I wrote that. I had a lot to learn, so I learned. But never really a reason why… Of course, to glorify God, that was decided early on, but we can glorify Him through all things. Why writing? I didn’t know.
Until, say, about a year and a half ago, I posted a story online, and after I received reviews, I decided, “I write to make people feel something. Even if only one person feels something, my job here is done.”
More this year, I haven’t really shared anything online or received any sort of feedback, and I drifted in and out of days wondering why I was writing or wasn’t writing, and was I just really suffering through all this for what. Fame? Money? Working towards goals so distant…
And I realised, when I wasn’t writing, when I couldn’t write…well, to paraphrase a character from “Seasons of Blossom”, “When I draw, I feel like I can breathe again.” When I write, I feel like I can breathe again. When I’m not writing, it feels like I’m suffocating. At this point, I can’t live without it. I may not enjoy every moment of it, but if I don’t write, I can’t breathe anymore. I don’t know how this happened. I never thought I was going to write. I was going to become a pianist or something. But nothing, not piano, not reading, not music, not dance, nothing makes me feel the way that writing does. Maybe because I haven’t invested as much time into those things, but writing…only writing I can’t live without.
So, yeah. I write to glorify the Lord, to touch people’s hearts, but when the world outside is stripped away, and there’s no one to write for, I write for myself, so that I can breathe.
Geez, talk about sappy. I’m sure a lot of you have heard this spiel before hhhhhhhhhhhhh but that’s okay.
Lately, it's been on my brain
Would you mind letting me know
If hours don't turn into days@kathleenramm, I love your answer, and I don’t think it was too long. Creativity is a beautiful thing, isn’t it?
1: I write to escape. I’ve had a bit of a rough go with my health in the last few years, and so when something hard happens and I feel completely lost, I write to let out my emotions and sometimes anger, then I talk to God about what’s going on. Maybe it should be the other way around, but that’s usually what happens.
2: I write to try and use my experiences in realistic ways that others can relate to. My dad first encouraged me to do this; I’ve moved a lot of times; at least 8 different areas that I remember, so I have been around a massive variety of people and culture and change. So now I try to put it in my writing. I learned the hard way to stay out of the clicks and such groups and so I became pretty good at studying people.
3: Now this may sound ridiculous, but if I don’t write or draw for more than a week, I actually get depressed and extremely stressed. I am not joking. I have a vivid imagination that never stops, and I have to use it or I don’t do well in any other area of life, so I guess it’s just my mind. I can’t not write and draw. I have to express myself artistically or I feel like I’m suffocating.
4: To vent and process hurt. I’ve been a bit of an outsider among my peers from a young age and a brunt of teasing rudeness. So when others were being mean to me or others, I’d write to fume and let it out. Now that I’m older, I don’t struggle with it so much and I’ve learned to be more mature in my response, but my experience shows in my writing; there’s a reoccurrence of people getting bullied and hurt, the way it’s changed them, and also showing some of them earning to cope with it or let go, and the negative consequences of it, as well.
sorry, that was really long XD
I'm 'a homeschooler' because cookie-making writing artistic animal-whisperer isn't a job title
@devastate-lasting Yesss I am not alone in feeling suffocated when I don’t write!!! I’m glad to know that lol
I'm 'a homeschooler' because cookie-making writing artistic animal-whisperer isn't a job title
@kathleenramm I’d say that the song In The Unknown by Volunteers literally sums up why I write, and also me, in a way
I'm 'a homeschooler' because cookie-making writing artistic animal-whisperer isn't a job title
@kathleenramm I love your answer to the question! I have to say that I write for very much the same reasons haha. And no, your answer wasn’t too long at all!! It was beautiful!!
When I first started writing, it was for school, because I had to. I hated writing though. I used to think it was boring, but then I realised that all of the things I daydream about, I can write. It felt like a wall broke. Suddenly, any book I wished I could find and read, was at my fingertips. I couldn’t stop. I could easily have 13-14 novels that I worked on evenly, and I still didn’t get tired of it. I went on a writing frenzy, I guess XD
I have recently noticed that my younger siblings have become interested in writing and coming up with stories, so I think that may be really fun some day. I would love to be able to write with them the way you and your siblings write, Kathleen!
@elfwing Oo I’ll listen to that! *four minutes later* Woahhh I just found me in that song, too XD I LOVE this!! This is one of my new favorite songs, thank you for sharing!!@
"It's easy to be caught up in stardust and whispers when reality is so dark and loud."
@daisy-torres you’re welcome!! Another one I love is One Heart by Celine Dion
I'm 'a homeschooler' because cookie-making writing artistic animal-whisperer isn't a job title
Why do I write? Easy answer, I enjoy it and don’t want a boring job. Therefore, I’m trying to make writing my career.
Okay, here’s a better answer: I constantly get stories ideas, and I don’t want them to just simply stay in my brain. Plus, I’m very creative and writing is a creative outlet.
I’m just still trying to figure out if I have any talent in it.Stories excite me. Characters excite me. I can’t imagine not writing about characters and their stories. I feel as if my stories need to be told, even if it is for the sake of only one person ever reading them."It looks like a fairy world"~Meg from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Fall in love with JesusOoo, I really like that answer. Sometimes it can be really hard to communicate verbally. And when you do, you rarely get past the shallow stuff. But with writing, you can cut out all that nonsense and get straight to the point. I think writing, whether that be in stories, poetry, or song lyrics, is one of the best forms of self-expression. You can say the things no one has the courage to say and communicate it in a way the impacts people harder.
and yo, writing just for fun is a blast. Writing with no rules and anything can happen, is preeeety great.
Haha, yeah this is one of those questions that you don’t think is that deep until you write your answer and your like “oh… so that’s the reason”
Your answer is so beautiful! I didn’t think it was sappy at all. I think everyone has something they can’t breathe without. Like you said, it could be drawing, writing, dance, and for others it’s alcohol, gambling, addiction, and such. Something that keeps you afloat during storms.
@elfwing That song was great!!!!!
"It looks like a fairy world"~Meg from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Fall in love with JesusIt wasn’t too long at all! Your answers have made me see even more how wonderful writing can be. It’s pretty amazing all the things writing can do. I think writing stories is even more fun and healing than reading them.
It’s pretty dope right? Being to write all the stories that you wish existed. I mean it’s not easy and often doesn’t turn out quite how you wanted, but still, the process is exhilarating.
Writing with siblings is the best! We’ve gotten a lot closer together because of it, and writing is a lot more easy and fun doing it with someone.
That makes a lot of sense. It just feels like a waste when you have all these stories and characters in your head that never get to see the light of day.
@kathleenramm Why do I write… this is a hard question. So this post will likely be a lengthy thought dump, haha.
First of all, I write to serve God. I am trying to transform my fiction to be as pleasing as possible, because I really want Him to look at it and say “this is good”. I don’t really care if other people love my fiction, I want GOD to love my fiction, above all. I want Him to be pleased with it. (Might make for an interesting convo up in Heaven, too. XD)
Writing has also become my therapy now, too. Just the other day I was crying and then I sat down and wrote a little and it stopped. I use it to get out feelings, whether through poetry or putting my feelings into characters vicariously. I can’t go long without it.
Writing is in my thoughts day and night, and I’m constantly thinking about characters, constructing lore, and just expanding this… universe… inside my head. I think one of the main reasons I write is because there’s a story inside me, and it’s building and building and constantly getting bigger and bigger. I just need to get it out. It’s my paracosm. I need it to be out there in the world. I want people to be able to enjoy it with me.
If someone told me I’d never be able to get my story out, for whatever reason, I’d probably cry. It’s inside me, and I need to get it out. Yes, I come up with ideas insanely fast, but I have to try to put them down on paper at some rate. It needs to be out there.
I don’t know, I just really feel like writing is like a piece of me. I didn’t used to write. I didn’t like writing. And now I have this entire world inside my head. It’s me now. And I want to take the risk of putting that piece of me out there.
Haha, sorry, it’s hard to get everything I totally feel into words… but those are the main reasons.
staring at the fields
if nothing's really real
i'll make the winter now my home@kathleenramm It seriously is. I love it!
Aww, that’s really cool! My cousin and I are in the planning stages of writing a novel together. I’m really excited for the actual writing part on that one.
"It's easy to be caught up in stardust and whispers when reality is so dark and loud."
@kathleenramm I agree, it is definitely healing!
I'm 'a homeschooler' because cookie-making writing artistic animal-whisperer isn't a job title
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