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Alijandro
New member
Username: alijandro

Post Number: 3
Registered: 04-2004
Posted on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 - 4:02 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

It's a very general question, but you'd be doing a great service to me and more importantly to yourselves to answer this question: "Why do I write?"
It's been a very long time since I have been on this web-site, and I have recently recieved e-mail that incidentally brought me back here. I originally left out of frustration that I would be happy to elaborate later on in this thread, but I'd like to hear your responses (or "read your responses" for the technically anal!)

P.S. - I'm aware of some sort of "remodeling", but I'm not sure how I have only three posts! Especially since this is the first post I have written in two years, and last time I'm aware of, i easily had over 200 posts - eehh, oh well....

(Message edited by Alijandro on July 19, 2005)
"We are the musicmakers, the dreamers of dreams." -W.W.
M
Board Administrator
Username: mjm

Post Number: 3843
Registered: 11-1998
Posted on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 - 11:31 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

Thank you for returning to us, Alijandro. And I do hope you will elaborate on the "frustration" that took you away from Wild. I, for one, would like to know more.

As for the number of posts, unfortunately Wild experienced a couple of crashes in the time that you were away that cleared everyone's posting level. However, everyone was pretty well zeroed out, so the new posting numbers don't really favor anyone. Everyone's been climbing up since the new numbers were established. I, myself, have been posting on this site since its inception. I know I must have at least 10,000 posts by now, not the 3,000 or so that the system displays. Sorry about the posting numbers, but keep posting and your numbers will climb again.

As to why I write, I suppose it is for the emotional satisfaction of it. A sense of accomplishment factors in there as well. Also, it is intellectually stimulating. As far as hobbies go, writing provides a good deal of satisfaction with little or no upfront costs. Paper and pens can always be found or pilfered. *grin*

Thanks for returning, Alijandro. I hope you will explain your frustrations so that if there is something we can do to minimize them, we will be given that opportunity.

Best,
M (Administrator)
"A-Bear"
Moderator
Username: dane

Post Number: 1155
Registered: 11-1998
Posted on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 - 2:10 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

Money, power, world recognition, and above all, because it's one of the few things in life I am half-ass good at. *smile* Seriously, there are probably as many reasons to write as there are no two alike snow flakes and all of them are valid. In general, I believe most folks write because they have to write or they'd go insane not to do so. Some write for catharsis, some with the hope of getting published, and some because they can. Regardless of the reason behind it all, it makes for a better person if they do it with the intention of improving as they forge ahead and accept constructive advice with a grain of salt (not always easy to do, I know from personal experience). Anyway, yes, welcome back and do please tell us why you write as well – would enjoy knowing more. Thanks.

D (Moderator and sometimes writer)
marty
Advanced Member
Username: marty

Post Number: 589
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 - 6:31 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

I write because it has a therapeutic value to it. Sometimes when I am in pain, or when I am in such a joyful mood.

Its a catharsis.

Im looking forward to reading your forthcoming posts.


Cheers Brethren
Beau Blue
Advanced Member
Username: beau_blue

Post Number: 278
Registered: 03-2004
Posted on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 - 7:09 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

why do I write? It seems like a good idea at the time.

-blue
Dale McLain
Advanced Member
Username: sparklingseas

Post Number: 1013
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 - 7:58 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

so I can breathe...

take care~dale

(Message edited by sparklingseas on August 02, 2005)
k.j
New member
Username: k_j

Post Number: 3
Registered: 07-2005
Posted on Thursday, July 21, 2005 - 6:51 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

I write to clarify the ambiguities within and around me.
Jim Doss
Senior Member
Username: jimdoss

Post Number: 1650
Registered: 12-2003
Posted on Friday, July 22, 2005 - 9:33 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

Primarily because I hover in that zone between crazy and confused, and have the compulsive need to explain life to myself. I wouldn't wish this on anyone else.

Jim
Learning to Talk Again is now available at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1411625552, or http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=1411625552.

LJ Cohen
Moderator
Username: ljc

Post Number: 2495
Registered: 07-2002
Posted on Friday, July 22, 2005 - 6:03 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

I write because it's the best way I have found to make sense of the world and my own emotions. I can't imagine not writing, in some way, shape, or form. It is the way I order my universe.

best,
ljc
http://ljcbluemuse.blogspot.com/
Veronica Yvonne
Member
Username: yvonne

Post Number: 108
Registered: 03-2004
Posted on Saturday, July 30, 2005 - 5:38 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

I write because there are things that I want to say.

I write poetry because that is the best way I know to say some of them, since in poetry I can use words and lines in ways that I can't in prose or speech (at least not without sounding like a doof, and being thus ineffective).

I write because I want to get better at writing.

I write because I want to learn (discover, analyze) what I think or know. In writing, I force myself to express in words things that could easily go unsaid and thereby unnoticed. I also can go back, reread, and think whether what I have written is actually what I think or is right. (Then revise accordingly until I'm convinced that it is.)

There may be more reasons. These are what come first to mind.

Oh - and, apparently, I like it. But I think that's mostly a generalized statement of the things I've already said.

Veronica

(Message edited by yvonne on July 30, 2005)
Gary Blankenship
Senior Member
Username: garyb

Post Number: 4371
Registered: 07-2001
Posted on Saturday, July 30, 2005 - 8:23 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

because I must
because I can
because the words are there
because my muse insists
because I'm channelled by a Chinese poet dead for 1200 years
because I can let go
and let it out

because there are crows on the roof
rain water in the gutters
and stray cats in the driveway

because there are 10000 becauses
and only seconds to relay them all

Gary
Drop in read the new MindFire, 2005's first Go in through http://www.mindfirerenew.com/
to get to the issue in a click or two.
Kathy Paupore
Advanced Member
Username: kathy

Post Number: 2254
Registered: 12-2003
Posted on Sunday, July 31, 2005 - 9:03 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

I write to slow down the frantic pace of life and put those moments that would otherwise be forgotten or missed down in black on white, and pretty much what everyone else has said too.

:-) K

Joshua Johnston
New member
Username: silverfire

Post Number: 10
Registered: 06-2005
Posted on Monday, August 01, 2005 - 3:20 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

I write because I want to. :D
J.D.A.
New member
Username: lex

Post Number: 10
Registered: 07-2005
Posted on Tuesday, August 02, 2005 - 8:49 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

I write because it is very simple. Not that I don't make it reall complicated sometimes by not correctly punctuating or spellling: or using words that I don't know the meaning of, but sound really nice and transpondent. Ah what the heck what else would I be doing? Trying to make up words? It is very simple, I just do. It makes me who I am, unperfect but pleasant to be around.
Michael MV
Senior Member
Username: michaelv

Post Number: 949
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Wednesday, August 03, 2005 - 10:27 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

I create
I compose

therefore I am


:-)

Michael (MV)

 
 
Denis M. Garrison
Advanced Member
Username: denismgarrison

Post Number: 453
Registered: 01-2005
Posted on Wednesday, August 03, 2005 - 10:37 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

I have thoughts and a pen.
Readers exist.
What else am I to do?

Denis
www.dmgar.com
Visit Haiku Harvest at www.haikuharvest.net
Visit Loch Raven Review at www.lochravenreview.com
My books are available at www.lulu.com/denismgarrison
Emusing
Moderator
Username: emusing

Post Number: 1433
Registered: 08-2003
Posted on Thursday, August 04, 2005 - 1:23 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

Perhaps the answer is axiomatic.

I write because one of the highest purposes in art is the creation of an effect.
I like to create effects.
I like to have effects created upon me.

Poetry delivers this at the finest wavelength imaginable. The epiphanies in poetry could probably be measured on an oscilloscope. How's that for scientific!

I'm also an idealist and believe that poetry
can change the world.

E
Vienna
Senior Member
Username: vienna

Post Number: 319
Registered: 11-1998
Posted on Thursday, August 04, 2005 - 3:48 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

E

You're not, perchance; an ENFP are you?
V :-)
'All of us get lost in the darkness
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars'
Neil Peart
My poetry books at Lulu
http://people.lulu.com/users/index.php?fHomepage=101596
Penelope
New member
Username: penelope

Post Number: 5
Registered: 07-2005
Posted on Thursday, August 04, 2005 - 6:18 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

Whether writing or reading poetry, it's a way of tricking my intellect into silence and letting the whole me speak. When I read a poem that works, it's my voice I hear, as well. It erases all boundaries btween divided self, me, you,this and other. It's a thrilling experience of wholeness and it's always a metaphorical surprise. That makes me believe in the possibility of everything including me. That's why I'm hooked.
Emusing
Moderator
Username: emusing

Post Number: 1434
Registered: 08-2003
Posted on Thursday, August 04, 2005 - 10:24 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

Ha ha V. I had to google that. No dear, not an ENFP. Unless it means Extremely Nutty Freelance Poet or ______________.

Good poetry captures the impossible--I think this question is quite difficult to answer because there are just as many reasons for writing as there are poems to write.

x E
Veronica Yvonne
Valued Member
Username: yvonne

Post Number: 111
Registered: 03-2004
Posted on Thursday, August 04, 2005 - 11:26 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

Interesting...I don't ever want to "trick my intellect into silence."

Poetry, to my judgment, is not a way of quieting the mind but of using it in a different way. It is perhaps even more about the intellect than ordinary conversation: it's about using the right words, only the right words, and that takes a good bit of thought. (That's another reason of mine, or maybe one of the same said a different way. Another part of "I like it.")
Penelope
New member
Username: penelope

Post Number: 6
Registered: 07-2005
Posted on Friday, August 05, 2005 - 5:03 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

I so agree with you, Veronica, about language. It is the tool of the craft and certainly a function of the intellect, always running in the background. I was talking more about being in the beginner's mind and silencing the internal critic who constantly fuels that monkey mind the Buddhists describe. Of course, they are their boisterous selves as soon as pen leaves page and ever so present in the editing process. There's a volume control but no mute.



(Message edited by Penelope on August 05, 2005)
E V Brooks
Advanced Member
Username: lia

Post Number: 1250
Registered: 12-2003
Posted on Saturday, August 06, 2005 - 5:55 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

I write to understand

lia
Christopher T George
Advanced Member
Username: chrisgeorge

Post Number: 1786
Registered: 12-2004
Posted on Sunday, August 07, 2005 - 10:25 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

Hi all

This might sound conceited but I write because I authentically believe I have something to say. Also I don't write "for myself" alone as some writers say. My writing is done expressly for publication or to share with others in public readings.

Chris
Editor, Desert Moon Review
http://www.desertmoonreview.com/
http://chrisgeorge.netpublish.net/
http://christophertgeorge.blogspot.com
susan wiener
Valued Member
Username: susie

Post Number: 194
Registered: 07-2004
Posted on Sunday, August 07, 2005 - 3:17 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

I write because I need to. I do a little every day and it helps me cope with my back pain and other trials my husband and I face. I really enjoy it and the publication of some of my work is an added bonus.
Danielle Stokes
New member
Username: abornpoet

Post Number: 20
Registered: 08-2005
Posted on Thursday, August 11, 2005 - 9:45 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

I write out of habit as oppose to hobby. It is a must. The thought comes to me, the pen to the page, the poem to life. And I provoke it as often as possible - sometimes through nature, sometimes love or sorrow and sometimes just by closing my eyes and gathering wool.

RJ K
New member
Username: scribbledtales

Post Number: 2
Registered: 08-2005
Posted on Sunday, August 14, 2005 - 10:06 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

Writing is something that has never been taken for granted by me. Whether I am telling a story or going on and on about some nonsense, it's something I love to do and something I hope to get recoginzed (I know I butchered that word) for. It's also great when people read my poems, tell me what I could do better, what was absolutely perfect, and it's basically just the satisfaction of knowing "If someone can relate to what I can write -- and it effects them, that's something not everyone can do."
Veronica Yvonne
Valued Member
Username: yvonne

Post Number: 117
Registered: 03-2004
Posted on Monday, August 15, 2005 - 8:31 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post

Alijandro, is it later in the thread by now? What were you frustrated with that made you leave before?