Why Write? If you need a reason to justify the excessive time your masterpiece will surely take, here’s ten.
1. Because you must. If you must, you must. Many writers write because they can do no else. They dream in sentences. They can not escape their stories. They simply must.
2. Because you have something to say. Without being didactic, great literature says something about the world we live in, about man.
3. Because you love it. Because when you write you are happier. Because after you’ve written, you are a better husband, wife, father, mother, friend, son or daughter.
4. To tell your story.
5. To tell another’s story.
6. For yourself. Maybe the story you want to read or the character you want to read about does not exist (or you haven’t found them yet and don’t have the time to).
7. For a child. Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Winnie-the-Pooh to name just three – all written for a child or particular group of children.
8. For the world.
9. Not for the money. It would be impolite to talk of my own finances here, but suffice to say I have not given up the day job.
10. Not for the fame. There’s only space for one J.K. Rowling or Suzanne Collins at a time, few of us can be loved (and deservedly so) as Jacqueline Wilson or Michael Morpurgo are, don’t expect to to achieve the critical acclaim of a genius like Patrick Ness (yes I said genius – Just read the opening sentences of The Knife of Never Letting Go for proof) . There’s many a writer though. You do the maths.
Next – Where do great ideas come from?
Tom Avery 