by Milton Johanides

Created on: June 24, 2009   Last Updated: July 01, 2009

The are many reasons why writers write. Writing is the most immediate way of expressing yourself. You don't need company or expensive materials. You always have an audience ready and waiting for your work. It can be done at any time, any place. And because there is literally an infinite number of ways of expressing thought in words, the art of writing is an endless activity. No sooner have you completed one article, than another comes knocking at your door. But of course the real reason why writers write is to be read, and the more people a writer can reach, the happier he becomes.

Writing is about the passing on of knowledge, and there is always the chance that someone somewhere will benefit from a few well chosen words. Reading a well-written article, or story, or novel, can be the most comforting and/or liberating experience, and as long as people want to read, writers will write. Sharing your story through writing is the best way of sharing experience. Recalling memories from childhood, expressing the emotions you went through during illness or bereavement, the diary of an abused child, the remorse of a criminal, all are useful material for writing and useful in helping others get through similar experiences.

Over the centuries, writing has been the saving grace of mankind, a source of great entertainment, and a conduit for knowledge. Imagine mankind minus its literary accomplishment. No Bible, no Homer, no Shakespeare, no Wordsworth or Dickens. No J.K. Rowling or Tolkien. No Tolstoy or Joyce. Imagine a world without Hamlet, or Macbeth, or James Bond. We write in the hope of inventing something new, or offering a refreshing twist on something that is old. Writers want to entertain as well as inform.

Above all writing is therapy, both for the writer and the reader. As we unburden our feelings and emotions onto the screen it is as though we are making ourselves better people. The writer learns as much about himself through his writing as his readers do. It is a kathartic process and contributes to self-knowledge. Writers save society a fortune in therapeutic treatments by treating themselves.

Society can only benefit through having a glut of good writers. Political speeches, religious rhetoric, scientific treatises, all need careful treatment by a skillful wordsmith, and the more we value these rare creatures, the greater will be their output. Writers write to make a difference. When the world is tottering on the brink of collapse at the end of time, it is the journalist who will report it, who will analyse every angle and search tirelessly for a solution.

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