Introspection: Why write? (the primary reason I mean) Possible answers: Money/recognition, self-validation, love/addiction, power/freedom, to create a masterpiece, or…I’ll get to the last one in a bit. It’s a bit meta (sorry if you’re not into that). So starting with money/recognition-not up to the writer. People may buy my work…or not. People may give me kudos…or not. It may happen after death. It may be that my work is lauded during life and panned afterwards. It’s happened in other art too, not just writing.

Self-validation: That IS up to me, but not dependent on what I write. I can choose to be validated by it or not. ANY accomplishment or work can be validating…or not. You can always find some mistake to pick at, or you can just enjoy having done the work. Contentment and self-validation are internal choices.

Love/addiction-it is entirely possible to write sheerly for either of these, but then I would have to be prepared to make no compromises, to do it sheerly out of MY love/addiction to it. I would have to make sure that I was ready to be my only reader, because my love of the story as I saw it was so strong I would be unwilling to make changes to accommodate others.

Power/Freedom-Not sure how many of you have experienced inaction due to lack of regimentation, but I sure have. Writing is like being able to build a house with infinite resources coupled with the ability to weaken the laws of physics. No boss, no budget, and you can create unstable structures that stand up in the world you’ve created but would collapse in the physical realm. With all that power, all that freedom, who WOULDN’T be tempted to create a beautiful, unstable mess; a hodgepodge of ideas, emotions, and desires splattered onto a page like the painting I did in kindergarten? There is nothing wrong with this-but with an unwillingness to consider reward other than a feeling of power/freedom, I need to be ready to be my only audience. So power/freedom can actually cause the work to suffer or not manifest at all, similar to paralysis by analysis.

Creating a masterpiece-a subjective endeavor. How many of you read great pieces of literature in high school or college that abysmally failed to compare with your favorite movie or story? I can personally say I don’t really like reading Shakespeare or Tolkein. (Sorry if I blaspheme) Depending on the culture and times, it may be a masterpiece or it may not. BUT, here is where I see a clue.

A “masterpiece” is created when a writer manifests a work that is recognizable as having eternal truths impeccably woven into it. It must also resonate with the reader IMHO, so that those truths ring clear to an interested and receptive mind. So depending on your audience, whether it be high school, elderly, white, black, male, female, whomever, they may say it’s a masterpiece or not. Now a writer must be able to “shift identity” to write from different perspectives, right? So a REALLY versatile writer will be able to “shift identity” to connect with ANY audience, being able to create a “masterpiece” for whomever, whenever, wherever.

Here’s where the good part is: This ability to “shift identity,” to see eternal truths from multiple perspectives and events, to be able to have a clarity of perception so strong that you can create “masterpieces” on demand, THAT to me is why I write. I want THAT. It doesn’t take a genius to go from that to deeper mystical principles like being able to simultaneously see the connections and diversity of existence so that your writing can illustrate interconnectedness in diverse ways to diverse audiences, but I don’t want to go into spirituality. That’s a whole ‘nother can of worms. With this skill anyways, I feel other writing concerns would naturally fall into place.

That was a super long rant.  Sorry. I also realize that the truth of it is that we all write because of a mix of these reasons, but at the same time I think most of us are driven by one in particular over the others.  Anyway, what primarily motivates you guys to write?  Thanks for reading!  I wish you inspired drafting and insightful editing.