Because I have to. Because I can't not write. Because it drives me absolutely crazy when I have lines of dialogue - or entire conversations - playing out inside my head and I can't get them down on screen. Or scenarios come to me and I know how the characters would react to them and I
have to write them. When - and this relates to fanfiction more than original writing - I see an episode or a scene and I
know there could be more to it, or there's unexplored consequences, and I feel as if I'm being driven insane until I actually explore them.
That's why I write.
Over the last year, I thought I'd pretty much come to the end of my writing career. I was out of inspiration and motivation for Lois and Clark. I tried original writing; got five chapters written and then dried up - not on inspiration, because I know where the rest of the novel will go, but on motivation. I had unfinished fanfics - 24 Hours, in particular. I would stare at a screen and no words would come. I finally forced myself back to writing with a couple of short fics. Then managed, with difficulty, to finish 24 Hours.
And then got hooked on another TV series and suddenly those scenes, those lines of dialogue, those entire conversations, those 'what if' scenarios are all playing out in my head again. I really
do have voices in my head. For the first time in a very long time, if I can't get to a keyboard I'll write in longhand. And in about ten weeks I have written 34 stories. Most of them are single-part - anything between 1500 and 6000 words; but some are considerably longer, 70,000 words in one case.
So that's why I write - I couldn't possibly
not write. It'd drive me insane. As for whether it matters if people read what I write - well, of course it's nice. But I started posting fic in a completely different fandom, where I knew no-one and no-one knew me. I was a complete unknown when I posted my first few stories. I'm not any more, and that's nice - but I'd still be writing even if my work hadn't turned out to be popular. Because the voices just won't shut up!
Great poll, Lynn!
Wendy
