All the Write Reasons

Charles Joseph Albert  
Before the Gutenberg Press, if some Geoffrey Chaucer or Sappho wrote a book, he or she had to be otherwise employed… or independently wealthy. The telling of stories to their immediate circle of peers wouldn’t have been their bread and butter, but just an amusement. And I suppose we are all–writers and non-writers alike–still trying to do this, even today.

Before the Gutenberg Press, if some Geoffrey Chaucer or Sappho wrote a book, he or she had to be otherwise employed… or independently wealthy. The telling of stories to their immediate circle of peers wouldn’t have been their bread and butter, but just an amusement. And I suppose we are all–writers and non-writers alike–still trying to do this, even today.


With the advent of modern-ish technology and economics came the possibility that a storyteller might actually make a living at the pastime, and the idea of “the writer” was born. Not long after came the question, “Why do writers write?”


I imagine our motivations can be lumped into three major categories:


  1. Self-Promotion

Some people seem to be born with hubris. They’re convinced they’re so fascinating that the rest of us should devote hours and days to following along in their head with them as they unleash their brilliance.


This class seems to have exploded in the Internet age with influencers, gamers, celebrities, and all manner of shameless self-promoters. Do they have anything noteworthy to say? What difference does that make? Their adoring audience will lap it up: Paris Hilton & Kardashians nowadays, but the mould was long cast by literary wonders of previous ages such as Riley Kennedy and Amanda McKittrick Ros.


A certain amount of hubris is a necessity for every writer, of course. Even those unpublished in their lifetimes, like Franz Kafka, or Emily Dickenson, had to imagine that their words had value. So an active ego is a necessity for any writer. It’s just not a guarantee of good writing. 



  1. Financial

When someone says “so-and-so is a writer” the first thing you might wonder is “how successful are they”? Most of us probably believe there’s something artificial about calling yourself a writer when only thirty people ever read your stuff. But if someone’s writing sells so well that she’s able to quit her day job? Then we all agree, she’s a writer!


But if you look into the most successful authors in history, or the most successful authors in the best-seller lists now, a pattern very quickly emerges. Other than a few outliers, the most published writers all work in genre fiction: thrillers, romance, detective or children’s lit. 


Yes, the most published author of all time is William Shakespeare, with 2 billion copies sold. Maybe that’s not so surprising. But the next twenty authors on the Wikipedia list of top selling authors are all genre writers. Not until Paul Coelho, at 350 million copies, does a writer appear who is not working on a formula. Not to say anything against the writers in between. Some of my happiest hours were spent with Harry Potter, Hercule Poirot, or Judd Sackett. 


Writers in this category generally don’t aspire to either of the next two categories. For them, the highest goal is telling a good story. Which, you’ve got to assume, is the most common reason to write.


  1. Change the World

Speaking of which, there is a type of writer whose whole raison d’etre is to change minds. I would propose that Paul Coelho, author of The Alchemist, fits in that category. The next writer who is arguably in this category, after another 25 mercenaries, is CS Lewis. In addition to entertaining children, his books try to cement the Christian faith of his English children readership. 


Proseletyzing doesn’t have to be religious, though. It can be political, social, or just plain nefarious. You might put Ayn Rand, L Ron Hubbard, and any number of politicians in this category.


I imagine that this is a less common reason for beginning writers to start off: to inform the world what it is doing wrong, and to urge it to have more of that rare quality of wisdom so replete in… well, in people like the author.


  1. The Literary Art

This is a funny category. Many readers profess that we recognize the genius of Faulkner, the craft of Hemingway, and the brilliance of Shakespeare. But we prefer to read Danielle Steele or James Patterson. That’s only because we need something light for the beach. Or the commute. Or any other moment of our reading lives.


Few writers make it into this category of “lit-rah-chaw.” Fewer still are able to make a living in it. For every Jonathan Franzen or Herman Hesse out there who actually get to quit their day jobs, there are millions who never sell in those numbers. You’re better off playing the lottery.


If you identify with this category, then you’re in there with me. And the vast majority of us are never going to make money at this stupid gig. But if you think having an unpublished manuscript is sad, I put it to you that it’s sadder to have no manuscript at all. Because surely, it’s an inherent good to learn how to express ourselves in our purest, most creative form. 


Regardless of who is reading.

19+ Comments

Lvocem

Nice article. Like you I fit that category of writing literature. But here’s the thing. I was in marketing, so I have already sold my soul the the commercial Hedes. So I do this for me. No formulas, no whatever agents want to buy, but what motivates me, makes me cry, makes me mad, and above all makes me stay up all night pounding on a keyboard happier than a pig in shit. It’s better than watching TV, its more rewarding than keeping a garden and watching your award winning tomatoes rot because you could not give all of them away, so I write. The rest, is icing on the cake.

Aug-14 2023

Marisaw

I feel as though this article is confusing literature with literary. Surely no one could be so big-headed as to think their work qualifies as “literature”?

I would also be very surprised if anyone starts writing novels in expectation of getting rich, or even of being famous (unless they’re about fifteen years old). Since the dawn of novel writing, the great majority of writers have starved in garrets and I think most people know that nothing has changed.

Aug-14 2023

Dste

Speaking from personal experience, you’d be surprised. No I’m not talking about myself. I am talking about people I was unable to convince that it’s unrealistic to expect themselves to be the one-in-a-million. And they weren’t fifteen. Some people really do believe they are that good.

Aug-14 2023

Dste

Interesting post. Having read it, I wonder if you intended to imply that genre fiction can’t be literary? If so, I would personally disagree. If you write a book in a literary style but include fantastical elements, doesn’t it still count as part of the fantasy genre? What if it invents fictional science or takes place in an imagined future? That puts it into sci-fi. In which category would you put books like One Hundred Years of Solitude or Slaughterhouse-Five?

Aug-14 2023

1910orange

Magical realism

Aug-14 2023

Dste

Yes, I know it’s magical realism. My point was that it’s literary but has elements of fantasy.

Aug-14 2023

Wereallmad

I think it’s okay to see yourself in any number of these or none at all. Humans are silly and complicated.
I’m definitely more hubris than any of the others. But more so than that, I love entertaining people and have since I was little. So that’s my primary motivation as I see it, and I’m happy with that.

Aug-14 2023

Miked

Yet without a vision, there can be nothing. The relatively few (but many in number) who make it are all very different people who share strong traits like tenacity, a little hubris, general stick-to-it-tiveness, and most of all, Vision. ‘Literary’, ‘Literature’, IMO are just labels for librarians.

Thomas Edison was mocked for having failed 2800 times to make the electric lightbulb work.

The meek shall inherit nothing but debasement, frustration and ignoble deaths; there is security in personal strength; you can fight City Hall and win; any action is better than no action, even if it’s the wrong action; you never reach glory or self-fulfillment unless you’re willing to risk everything, dare anything, put yourself dead on the line every time […]
-H.E.

Aug-14 2023

Deelo316

@Cjalbert Excellent article, IMO. You hit the nail on the head, especially with that last paragraph. Thanks. Now let me get back to that novel draft…

Aug-15 2023

Derevna

Hey old friend! Where have you been?
I write because–it is a very good reason. I haven’t earned a dime or been acclaimed as a literary genius. But I write anyway. Because I am determined to do it. I want to Burn with Fire and Sing to the Heavens.

Aug-16 2023

Cjalbert

@Derevna Ах, літературний імпульс. Не важливо бути генієм!

Aug-16 2023

Jlwade

I think there is another category that may not be distinct, but has some overlap with these. That would be polemicist and satirist–sometimes with the two combined. Orwell would be a good example of a polemicist who wrote weekly opinion articles as well as a significant body of literary criticism–and also some of the greatest satires in the English language (Animal Farm, 1984). Swift is another example, with his ecclesiastical writings, literary criticism, and of course, his unhinged satires. The motivations behind their works were highly variable, but they were not always trying to change the world. (And Orwell’s first work, “Down and Out in London and Paris” was about money, or his lack of it. ) More recently, Christopher Hitchens’s writings crossed boundaries in a similar manner.

Aug-20 2023

Scuffling

To me, writing is a privilege, not a right. It’s something granted, not an exercise of free will. Don’t get me wrong. A human construct isn’t the donor. Rather it’s a mixture of fate and circumstances. As the saying goes, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. That’s why I write.

Aug-20 2023

Trevose

Like @Dste I find this surprising. In my experience, the vast majority of writers who have not yet penned a novel think they are going to be the next big thing. Collectively, the people on this site are more moderated in their expectations, but even here there are a lot of folks who think their big day will follow once they finish their novel.

Until you have lived the reality of it – actually written a complete novel, edited it a few times, sent it through CC, have it beta read, been rejected by 40 agents, really internalized that 70% of traditionally published first-time novelists are dropped by their publisher after their first novel, and understand how little money even a single NYT best seller will actually generate – the fantasy looms large.

Aug-20 2023

Cjalbert

@Jlwade you might be right that the polemicist and satirist aren’t exactly the same as, say, the prophet or the political pamphleteer, but in my categorization they still fit in the “change the world” category. Their principal aim is neither financial, artistic, nor self-promoting, but the spread of some idea.

Aug-20 2023

Cjalbert

@Trevose 20 years ago, I was one of the starry-eyed newbies who imagined that I’d somehow make it big. To be nakedly honest, I still entertain the (mostly expunged) daydream that something I write will make it to a wider audience. Because even as uncool as it is to admit it, hope spring eternal, right?

Aug-21 2023

Trevose

Sure. Like the Beverly Hill Billies, I hope a multi-billion dollar oil seep will spring up in my backyard.

But it is not going to happen.

I confess that I take great exception to anyone who pedals such dreams only because they sell enabling products. The people who got rich during the various “gold rushes” were not the people digging for gold, it was the people selling shovels and the like. They knew there was no gold in the hills,

Just as all the people who are selling their products to aspiring writers with an implied (but not legally binding) promise that if you buy their product your novel will become a best seller.

Aug-21 2023

Cjalbert

That’s a great point to highlight here to any beginners: the Dickensian sea of shysters, con artists, vanity press operators, and contests that operate at a profit, all preying on the literary wannabe.

My hard rule for the past decade has been to never shell out a penny for a reading fee… or any other kind of fee.

Aug-21 2023

Michiemap

I’m currently at the attempting to get agented stage. It’s not going badly at the moment (as in I have interest from 3) but it isn’t going well (as in I don’t have an agent yet haha). The way I measure success at the moment is not money. I see it this way:

Failure = not getting any interest at all.

Insane success = actually making a living from this (not talking about making millions and having a private jet, just being able to write more and have enough to pay my bills from writing alone).

And then there’s everything in between = getting an agent and then being dropped after one book, getting an agent but it not ending up getting published, getting an agent and writing every day for the rest of my life but still needing a second job. Not getting an agent and then self publishing and making some money off it (again I’m not talking mega money - just a little cash). I see all these as success for me. I imagine others have different expectations - finishing a novel might be success, being a better writer might be success.

Aug-21 2023
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