Young Writers Society

I wrote this a few years back for an inspirational essay. I got an A, I think. There are mistakes because I wrote it when I was younger. XD

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Many people ask why I like to write, but there is no right answer. Love for writing each is different by the author, and only depends on how they were or are brought up. It depends on how influential your family is and how past experiences have affected you. Consider also that these factors affect the way you write, in addition to your books.
I have never met an author, poet or screenwriter who does not read. Reading is the key. To write, you read. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t read when you were young, it just matters that you read at all. Your favourite authors, folk tales and books are an authority upon your writing style. Some people are born to write, to describe worlds that no one can truly see except for the very mind of the author. Not all best-selling authors were born to do what they do—they may have been born with a mind full of worlds and dreams or a love for the printed words that appear on the clean, creamy page that reveals all.
For me, I write what I want. I write for my benefit, to please me. I do not think of readers and what they expect. I write for me, and only me. If my things are published, it’s lovely, but the readers have to accept it for what it is and who I am as an author.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “We are wiser than we know.” He was right. We are so deep into ourselves, seeing how we can make everything easier, everyone lazier. We are stupid in this sense, creating a man-made world. Why do we not just let the earth run its course and stop trying to develop a danger-free, trouble-free planet? If we just live, we can live and die without feeling in debt to this great, blue planet. I think, as an author, that us writers, creators of imagination, killers of science, we have a right to send out a message to the world in any way we want. We can tell the world through words, our greatly fabricated words, and change how we view the world. Think about it. Our goal in life, no matter if you are the creator of a talk-show, a doctor or a person living on the streets, is to fix the problem. Do not focus on the problem, but instead let yourself stray randomly to the solution.
I write this to make a difference. I now have an answer to your question, “Why do you write?” and that is my answer. I write to make a difference. I write fantasy and mystery and fiction, but every little punctuation mark, every curving letter is to send a message out into the world. Every story is good, no matter writing skill or if they have a PhD in literature. I believe that titling any work of the written word as a “best-seller” or referring to the New York Times to make works known, is to claim how insecure the publisher or the author is about that certain piece of literature. Shouldn’t you just trust yourself to be loved by someone in the world, to allow someone to adore your work without referring to titles that could defer someone from your piece? Do not hesitate to be loved; you can be loved without being known.
I write so not to be titled a “New York Times Best-seller” or “Winner of Smarties Award”, but to be known without a title, to be known as only Erika, a writer who made a difference because of what she writes. We authors write, no matter the genre, to make a difference.

You make some points here that I would definitely agree with, especially your main point that to write you need to have read or are reading. Although I would argue that what you read doesn't necessarily need to be a book, story or tale for someone to have a love for writing. I think someone can acquire a love of writing by simply walking down a street and say, reading company slogans or reading the texts in adverts. Reading occurs everywhere these days. It's not a big point, since you're right in enthusing that it does derive mostly from texts like fiction, poetry and non-fiction but I just thought I'd comment on it.

However, I love your points about how everything me jot down is to give meaning (not as passionate about making a difference myself, but the meaning idea is definitely strong and present in all literary theory).

I would've probably also said something about experience maybe? Experience is probably one of the best tools in the world for inspiring people to write and is where the wealth and value of literature or story-telling comes from. Without having experienced things, there is little to enhance one's imaginations to take a leap deeper into the world of fiction, there is little to offer someone of a character arc or depth and there is little to offer anyone about the Human Condition, which authors such as McEwan and Shakespeare pride themselves upon. Experience is one of the most treasured and beautiful things, but it is also - essentially - the foundation of every story, every spoken word and every movement we take forwards as human beings. It's innate, natural and inside us.

Wow. I love it! I've never thought about writing like that before. For me, it's just been something to do whenever I get the time to do it. That's changed. I want to write so others can read!