Wow!!
See, I got what I wished for. This is a fascinating discussion. I'm enjoying it immensely, so thanks for chiming in, and please keep talking.
I hope you all noticed that you could choose more than one reason for question #1. Sorry I didn't bring that to everyone's attention more firmly than just in the poll. I myself write for more than one reason, so I wanted people to have some options.
Too, Sheila brought up an excellent point about writing for an audience. Supposing a situation in which you would write something but no one would ever see your work is kind of like asking that question "If a tree fell in the forest but no one was there to hear it, would it make a sound?" Since writing is a form of communication, and it takes a minimum of two parties for any sort of communication to occur, it only makes sense that a written story is intended to be read. Even if it is only personal friends, family members, yourself in your old age - even keeping a journal implies looking back at some point in the future - putting the words on paper rather than keeping them in your head signifies an intent to share a story. Like Kathy said, if no one were going to read the stories, you might as well just keep running them in your own mind.
That being said, I think the intention of question #2 was to force us all to ask ourselves if we write for pleasure or if we write for feedback (positive or negative, but hopefully positive). Writing is such a difficult thing. I think most of us struggle to get the images and emotions we have in our heads and hearts out in such a way that other people can see and/or feel what we want them to. If you don't enjoy the process more than you struggle with it, I don't think you would continue to do it unless it was because of feedback. You might go to a job you hated simply because you continued to get a paycheck. But if you were doing something that you absolutely loved and were faced with a paycut, you might not jump ship so quickly.
I often think that I could survive being stranded on a deserted island as long as I had an unlimited supply of paper and pens. I think I could sufficiently entertain myself by writing down stories and rereading them. In such a case, the audience would only be myself and, in theory, the paper and pen part would be unnecessary. But my brain would get so muddled I'd need to get it all down on paper to keep things straight. That's one reason I write. I have so many things going on upstairs, I need to get some of them out simply so I can make some space for more.
Lynn
