Why do so many people want to be writers?

In My Humble Opinion
21

People want to be writers for the same reason they want to be anything-because that’s their strength. People who are good at playing sports want to be athletes; People who are good at comforting the sick and hurt want to be doctors; people who are good at lying and backstabbing want to run for office; and people who are able to put their dreams on paper want to be writers.

I know I’m a good writer, and I’d love to be able to write professionally. However, I’ve realized since high school that the odds of being successful aren’t great, so I’ve also realized that for a long time at least, I’d better expect to be doing something else for a living to earn money. I wouldn’t mind being as successful as Stephen King, but though I probably won’t be, I do desire to write at least one moderately successful novel. Even if I never do, I’ll write because…I write.

One of my friends in high school told me something fairly profound (for a 16 yr old) that I’ve never forgotten. " Don’t say we want to be writers, we *are * writers. We just aren’t professional writers yet. "

22

Because I write.

I’ve got notebooks and computer files full of the crap I write. I never thought about publishing any of it until my friends started urging me to try.

Trying to get published has added a new dimension to my writing habit. Not only do I now write things I don’t really want to write (queries , synopses (I really hate these), letters begging for a response to the writings I didn’t want to write), I also get to be told over and over again that nobody wants to read what I write.

I never thought I could actually make a living writing, but supplimenting my income with my writing would be very nice indeed.

23

Because writing’s a disease. Once you get started, you have to keep going. There aren’t any twelve-step progams to stop. Besides, I don’t think most writers will admit to a Higher Power than themselves (certainly not editors!) – one great thing about writing is that you control what happens on that 8.5" X 11" paper (in Europe and elsewhere YMMV).

I started writing and sending out manuscripts at 11. But It’s alwas been a sideline. I have a “real” job to support my writing habit.

24

Why do people want to be writers? Because they think that they can be.

Now, pretty much everyone can actually write. Give 'em a crayon and a stack of loose-leaf notebook paper (the kind with the three holes already in one edge), tell 'em, “Go to it!”, and, by Harry, they’ll scribble away. What they won’t do, though, is produce copy that anyone will pay one red cent to read.

Same with music, painting, and, let it be said, just about anything that could be characterized as “creative” without having people actually fall down and choke on their own derisive laughter. Give someone the appropriate tool(s), and he’ll do it. Of course, no one wil be interested in the result.

Why do people like to want to be writers? It’s because they haven’t the thinnest idea as to what goes into to writing, even at the semi-demi-hemi-pro level. You get a cool idea, put some words down, get a fat royalty check, and spend the other 167 hours in a week partying with your groupies, right? You don’t have to actually get up in the morning, take a shower, get dressed, and go to work, dealing on an 8x5 basis with people who irritate the piss out of you in person, but will somehow be happy to pay $15.95 for a hardcover copy of your latest novel and to worship you from afar (the thought that, instead buying food, they’ll be buying all of their novels in hardcover, never seems to occur to them).

Ain’t that way at all, folks. Been there, tried that, have the scars.

25

Feeling a little bitter, are we Aka?

If your motivation for writing is to get groupies and make millions of dollars, then you are almost guaranteed disappointment. Unless your name is Stephen King or Nora Roberts.

Most of the people posting here do not seem to me to be quite that shallow.
That is not to say that I’d turn away from millions of dollars and groupies.

26

It is what I do well. I don’t know that I could “not write”. I think I have to.

One time I was being frustrated by a character in a piece of mystery fiction I was working on and a religious friend of my wife’s watched me arguing with my word processor. And she too asked why I wrote. I attempted to explain to her from a number of different directons and never really succeeded.

Finally she said in that patronizing voice that the very religious get when talking to small children or people whom they are certain are bound for hell, “Well, I’m sure God will help you if he wants you to write.”

If that’s true, I think there is sort of a God/Job relationship between the Almighty and all writers.

TV

27

Technical writer checking in - I fell into this in the last year and I am loving it. I’ve always thought of fiction writers (and diarists I suppose) as emotional exhibitionists. Occasionally I am one too, but for the most part I’m an explainer.

I write reference manuals for programmers who want to write interactive television applications that will run on digital satellite and cable set top boxes. Applications run the gamut from games to individualized weather channels, to movies on demand, to pop-up menus that allow you to order from Domino’s using your remote. Boring, you say? Not really.

I see it as a big puzzle to pick apart and then explain to somebody else. Sure, my audience is probably only about 300 people world-wide, but those people make their livings based on my work. If my work isn’t good enough, their programs will never have a chance of running.

I am paid quite well for my time, and only have to be in the office and deal with the political crap twice a week. I wouldn’t trade this career for anything.

28

Biggirl asks:

Nah. Not over that, anyway.

As I said, you (the generic “you”; this is not directed at anyone in this thread) want to write? Go ahead; it’s obvious that everyone posting to this board (with one or two notable exceptions, but we’re not in the Pit) has the ability to do so. I’ve written some things; granted, nobody wanted to read them, but I wrote them. Don’t believe me? Look, here’s a manuscript that I…oh, right, you don’t want to read it :o

You (the generic “you”, again) want to earn a living by writing one hour an week? Uh huh; call back when the drugs wear off.

29

I’d love to read your ms Aka. Unless it’s a western. And I know what you mean about people who think they can write, but can’t.

I don’t write literature, I write romances and participate in a few critique circles. Very often I get a chapter to critique and I wonder why this person thought she could pass this off as a romance novel. Or any kind of novel. Or a comic book even. How can she think this is anywhere near publishable?

But then I think my stories a very publishable. Someone could be reading my stuff and wondering why I’m deluding myself.

I write because I just do. Getting published would be great, but even if I never get published I’d still write.

P.S. For those of you who did not snicker when I said I wrote romance novels, check out my homepage and tell me what you think. [sup]No, my romance novels writings are not featured --or even mentioned-- there.

30

Do I want to write? Yes. Do I really think I can make a living at it? No. But I would still like to try and get something published. Even if it’s just one really crappy poem that I wrote in a fit of anger. I want to be able to say… I did this. If it doesn’t last beyond a few weeks that’s fine with me. I’ll have the satisfaction of knowing I got published. But even if I never get published I am a writer. That part of me can’t be changed and neither would I like to change it.

Right now I’m tossing around what I’d like to do as a career… writer is near the top but I do realize it isn’t likely I will make any money. Which is why I’m going to look into paleontology :wink:

31

I think lots of people write because it’s a good catharsis for all the pent up emotions which you would feel uncomfortable expressing to other people. I think a large proportion of those people want to be writers (as in professional) because they think they can make a quick buck easily. To be honest those people are right, to an extent. Whilst my name is yet to illuminate the bookshelves of the world I hope it will someday, at least to a small extent. However, when I read some of the crap that makes the bestseller lists it makes me very hopeful that if I do hit hard times as a writer I can always dash off some trashy bit of pulp and get a quick cash injection. Take James Patterson for example, now that guy has written 5 (I think) books, all of which have been best sellers and he’s even had a movie made of one (Kiss the Girls). Now that guy couldn’t write a shopping list, IMO but he’s raking in the cash. Books like his convince me that getting published is not that tough if you choose your material right. For example Patterson was lucky enough to come along when the serial killer thriller was en vogue, that’s why his books were so successful. If you pick your trend well enough you can probably get any piece of trash published.

32

I love to write, but I wouldn’t want it for a job. I’ve written over 90 staff reports for the Straight Dope, and I wrote em when I felt like it, because it was fun. I write for my “real” job, too, but it’s a different kind of thing.

33

Really, don’t even think about writing guidebooks for a living unless you have a nice endowment or something. There are a handful of people globally that make a decent living only writing guidebooks. I received less than USD10,000 for about 2 years. But, hell, the money was the least of it.

Wooha, but if ya wanna make real money as a writer doing serious fiction, I suggest investment banking. None of those clowns know how to write, and believe me, it’s all fiction. Been there, done that but haven’t written the book about it.