Why Do You Write?
George Orwell. ‘Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.’
Why do you write?
George Orwell gives four reasons below.
They are taken from his book, ‘Why I Write.’
How many apply to you?
I can relate to (1) ‘to be remembered after death, to get your own back on the grown-ups who snubbed you in childhood, etc., etc.’
(i) Sheer egoism. Desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, to get your own back on the grown-ups who snubbed you in childhood, etc., etc. It is humbug to pretend this is not a motive, and a strong one. Writers share this characteristic with scientists, artists, politicians, lawyers, soldiers, successful businessmen — in short, with the whole top crust of humanity. The great mass of human beings are not acutely selfish. After the age of about thirty they almost abandon the sense of being individuals at all — and live chiefly for others, or are simply smothered under drudgery. But there is also the minority of gifted, willful people who are determined to live their own lives to the end, and writers belong in this class. Serious writers, I should say, are on the whole more vain and self-centered than journalists, though less interested in money.
(ii) Aesthetic enthusiasm. Perception of beauty in the external world, or, on the other hand, in words and their right arrangement. Pleasure in the impact of one sound on another, in the firmness of good prose or the rhythm of a good story. Desire to share an experience which one feels is valuable and ought not to be missed. The aesthetic motive is very feeble in a lot of writers, but even a pamphleteer or writer of textbooks will have pet words and phrases which appeal to him for non-utilitarian reasons; or he may feel strongly about typography, width of margins, etc. Above the level of a railway guide, no book is quite free from aesthetic considerations.
(iii) Historical impulse. Desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity.
(iv) Political purpose. — Using the word ‘political’ in the widest possible sense. Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other peoples’ idea of the kind of society that they should strive after. Once again, no book is genuinely free from political bias. The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.
Orwell died in 1950, but I believe his thoughts apply as much to the uncertain times during his life, as they do today.
For me, writing is both therapeutic and enjoyable. I love being able to close the door on the real world for a few hours at a time and just lose myself in a fantasy world. I also enjoy the problem solving which in involved in a contemporary fiction story. (Q: How do you make a group of undercover wizards with no passports travel to America from a London airport without using broomsticks, for example. A: Men and broomsticks don't mix very well, so you make their wands identifiable and put them through a secret ID channel.)
Of the above points, I can certainly relate to point 1. One of the nicer things about writing is that, as long as you dress it up well, you can drop any number of virtual pianos on the heads of well-disguised people who have annoyed you at any point in your life and get great satisfaction from doing so. You can even do it several times if you're so inclined. This is the kind of therapy that really works for me when I'm stressed.
Also, if something does happen to irk me(in my case, frequently it's homophobia), my magical characters can tackle it in all kinds of creative, funny and unusual ways. I'm not sure I would call it political, but some might.
I think my main impulse is a curiosity about people: the differences between people, how they cope with their circumstances, how they relate to others, the escalating muddle that can ensue when someone makes a false move or a fatefully wrong decision. I feel vicariously, through my characters, so it's a kind of exploratory experience too. I like words, and I like trying to precisely capture a moment or a sensation in a few words that will magically transport the picture in my mind to someone else's mind. I used to feel (more strongly than I do now) that I'd like to prove to the nay sayers that I really could be a writer. I think nowadays I'm more intent on proving it to myself. After all these years of believing that I was really a writer at heart, I realise I'm in danger of ending up as one of those LA actor/waiters! I'd better crack on...
Quite simply....A book provides that little world of escapism, even if for just a few minutes from the mundane trials of day to day life.
Writing a book and creating a world of your own is only an extension of this. The idea of creating that escapism for someone else is also a big part of it.
I love that moment when you're on a roll and the words just pour through your fingers onto the page, there is no better feeling.