Write because you have something to say.
Write because you’ve always wanted to.
Write because you only just realized that you might die next week, or tomorrow, or five minutes from now, and you want to leave something behind for posterity.
Write because you have a secret fire burning inside of you and the only way that you can fan the flames is by sharing your thoughts with someone else.
Write because you’re bored and don’t have anything better to do.
Write for yourself.
Write for other someone else, or maybe everyone else.
Write because you love seeing your stats counter surge every time you post something. Write because nothing satisfies you quite so much as seeing others share what you’ve written. Write because you like the attention; there’s nothing wrong with liking the attention.
Write because it fills the emptiness in your heart or your soul or your pancreas or wherever your particular emptiness happens to be.
Write because nothing will ever fill that emptiness, and you want to find a way to connect with someone, anyone who might understand.
Write because your tenth grade English teacher told you that you had potential.
Write because your ex told you that your characters were dull and your dialogue stilted, as it’s a well-known fact that there’s nothing better in life than proving someone else wrong.
Write because you have a calling for it, you were born for it, because it’s the only thing you’ve ever wanted to do for your entire life.
Write because you only just decided yesterday that it might be neat to try to stringing a few pretty words together.
Write because even though your imagery might be clichéd and your metaphors weak and your reasoning best described as childish and unsound, you still have a noted talent fur cussing and it’s a scientifically-proven fact that a well-placed f bomb can make or break a paragraph.
Write a thousand words every day.
Write ten words every day, even if those words are nothing more than, “I hope you have a good at school, honey.”
Write one word every day. Today’s word is perigee; tomorrow’s will be sesquipedalian.
Write a book so strange and obscure that no major publisher will ever touch it.
Write something because you know that it will be commercially-viable.
Write serious fiction.
Write romance novels.
Write an epic fantasy series that’s actually a thinly-disguised takedown of your toxic workplace, starring your awful cubicle mate as vile R’hakhnae, the Insect Queen.
Write a review of the movie you saw last night.
Write a grocery list.
Write anything and everything, if writing is what you want to do. Don’t listen to people who want to peddle some kind of elite ideal of what it means to write; don’t buy into the idea that you can only refer to yourself as a writer if you’ve been published in the New Yorker or you have a stack of rejection letters a foot deep or you frequently stay up all night weeping softly into a glass of scotch because you can’t arrange exactly the right words in exactly the right order to say exactly whatever it is you want to stay. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you’re only a writer if you’ve spent a decade or more suffering for your art, starving in a garret in London or maybe Paris. Try to steer clear of the folks who will want to tell you that only one particular genre or style is real writing.
Write.
Just write.
In fact, I’ll even go so far as to say please write, because I promise you that there’s someone out there who’s dying to hear what you have to say, someone whose life might be changed by whatever sentiment you’re about to commit to paper or screen or cardboard-back-of-the-cereal-box. Write because you are the only person who has lived your particular life, and this has shaped your thoughts in such a way that you are the only one on this planet capable of expressing a thought in your own particular way.
Write because no other person who came before you or who will come after to you will ever, ever be able to do it in quite the same way that you can.
Write because if you don’t tell that story, the one that’s been slowly burning inside of you for the past year, the one that sits like a lump in your throat that never goes away or plays incessantly in the back of your head like a bad song with a good hook, will never be told if you don’t tell it.
Write because you’re the only one who can do this and we’re all counting on you.
Write because.
The Belle Jar 
Ooo this felt like a cool breeze. I know I want to write because reading something like this makes me feel like a child filled with possibility, whereas being encouraged to do just about anything else makes me feel like a child lost on a beach.
Thanks for sharing.
Outstanding!!! I love this! I am going to share this with my students!
Outstanding stuff! And so simple. Well, I am going to do what you have been exhorting throughout the post – just write!!!
I actually disagree with virtually the whole of the entry. I do agree with the first one, write because you have something to say. However the rest seem really to be saying write for all sorts of other reasons, even if you don’t have anything to say. This seems to me to be a good way of producing reams of boring words.
Reblogged this on GEEK HEAVEN and commented:
I thought this post was absolutely amazing and inspiring!
Reblogged this on the journalista blog and commented:
love this
Hi – loved this post and added it to my blogroll.
Cheers Pip
Reblogged this on rgdmff and commented:
Challenge Accepted.
Reblogged this on Yogi ke Funde and commented:
Came across this fabulous piece of blog where the author tells us so many reasons to write , and so on to express our self
Thank you for this. My work in progress and my lazy bones really needed it.
awesome way to describe the reasons to write…loved reading it
I first stumbled upon The Belle Jar after reading your article that was published on rabble.ca, “An open letter and challenge to David Gilmour (from a woman writer)”. Which, by the way, was fuckin dope. These arrogant asshole (and institutions) need to be called out on their fuckery. Well done. That being said…..
Relating to: “Tips for Writers”…. Thank you so much for the inspiration. You have no idea how moving and motivating those last few paragraphs were for me!
“…please write, because I promise you that there’s someone out there who’s dying to hear what you have to say, someone whose life might be changed by whatever sentiment you’re about to commit to paper or screen or cardboard-back-of-the-cereal-box. Write because you are the only person who has lived your particular life, and this has shaped your thoughts in such a way that you are the only one on this planet capable of expressing a thought in your own particular way.
Write because no other person who came before you or who will come after to you will ever, ever be able to do it in quite the same way that you can.
Write because if you don’t tell that story, the one that’s been slowly burning inside of you for the past year, the one that sits like a lump in your throat that never goes away or plays incessantly in the back of your head like a bad song with a good hook, will never be told if you don’t tell it.
Write because you’re the only one who can do this and we’re all counting on you.”
I’ve been procrastinating about writing for a while now and you really helped to give me the push I needed. More importantly, you helped me come to the profound realization that what I have to say is valuable and needs to be expressed. Not just for the sense of empowerment and catharsis that it provides me, but more importantly on the chance that someone else out there may gain some insight from what I write.
Thanks. I needed that.
Sincerely,
Eternally grateful for your inspiring expressions.
Reblogged this on pengantin pelik and commented:
I recently read something which may explain why that person did something which is equivalent to a (virtual / online) snub.
But then, I read this piece by a blogger whose sentiment on how the world treats half of the human population is one I share, and this struck me: “Write because you are the only person who has lived your particular life, and this has shaped your thoughts in such a way that you are the only one on this planet capable of expressing a thought in your own particular way.”
I may have strong opinions on some things which others can always dismiss as ‘overreacting’ or ‘making an issue out of the smallest things’, but here’s the thing: my opinions are based on my observations and experiences in my own life which no one else has lived, so write I will.
Weddings are once in a lifetime, but they are but one out of the many things that happen in a lifetime. The wedding would come and go, but the marriage that comes after would (hopefully) last a lifetime, and the way the world treats half the population would last many many lifetimes.
So, my writing may not be for everyone (and you may eliminate me from your reading list if you so wish), but I know there are other souls out there who would agree with me, or even if they don’t at first, they are willing to challenge the ways they have been taught, or socialised, to look at life and the world. So write I will.
I really like this. So encouraging as a fellow writer.
http://themessybits.me/
Oh, I needed this, I needed this. I found you at the exact right time. I’ve been swimming through heartache and tears and the loss of a real, true love-and at the bottom of my cavern of pain, there’s been this frail, faint whisper, “write. just write. It’s what you really love, it’s what you say you want but never do..” But I’ve been silencing the whisper, it was barely there anyway, right? And then today I read this. So tonight, I guess I let the tears keep drowning me, and put a bandaid on the cracks in my heart, and I write through it. What else is there to do?
Wonderful advice! This is helpful for all writers, whether we are beginners or struggling with writer’s block. Sometimes we need to remember that the first step is putting that pen to paper (or our fingers on the keys) and to write.
Reblogged this on Humyn and commented:
Writers! Here is a clever blog, called The Belle Jar. This post has some helpful advice for when we’re struggling with ideas.
Reblogged this on A Day in Goth's Life.
Thank You for Writing… this
Finally, a blog post of tips for writers that are worth reading.
Reblogged this on ForeverBound and commented:
Exactly my thoughts. Inspiring.
Really hating myself for being a pedant, here, but… “I hope you have a good at school, honey.” – looks like somebody seized the day?