Years of study have been devoted to understanding the underlying motives of why writers write, and the answers are often rooted deep in the writer’s psyche and have been subjected to various interpretations. Famous authors, for their part, do not give too much emphasis to the mystique and prestige of the craft as an art and habit. In the words of Sinclair Lewis: "Writing is just work—there's no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type or write with your toes—it's still just work." Harlan Ellison echoes the same sentiment when he said, "People on the outside think there's something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn't like that. You sit in the back of the typewriter and you work, and that's all there is to it."

But the basic component of why writers write is the need to share an idea, information, advice, or tell a story. The desire to communicate these things allows for a personal connection that goes along with that intangible fulfillment in writing. A short phrase or verse in poetry that moves a reader is enough for a writer to keep going. If we look at writing as an art, it gives writers a taste of immortality by speaking to generations of readers long after the writer is gone. Classical works of literature continue and shall remain required readings in schools and universities. Writers are chroniclers of history by writing down contemporary events that are shaping their own time, and it becomes a reference for posterity for them to have a better understanding of how those who lived before them went about with their lives. Not all professions are given these opportunities. Famous contributors to societies are immortalized through the pens of writers of history. Writers are the bridge to the past, present, and future.

The act of writing has been profoundly romanticized and has produced the common notion that it is an arduous and painstaking process. Many writers, however, dismiss this notion as nothing more than an exaggeration made by those who put so much emphasis on the artistry of stringing words together that it gave birth to the idea of writer’s block. Writing may be hard work, but careful planning of what you wish to convey allows for a smoother process. Writer’s block exists only if you choose it to be. Ask ten or twenty writers about their writing process and why they write, and you’ll get different answers.

But writers write not only to subject themselves to hard work. Writing is also therapeutic and a time for self-meditation in the same way that a painter finds solace in creating images on his canvas or a sculptor giving form to a slab of marble. Franz Kafka once said that writing is utter solitude, the descent into the cold abyss of oneself. Perhaps it is Henry Miller who offers the most concise reason why writers write: “Writing is its own reward,” he said. So whether you feel tormented or healing when you’re writing, whether you are born or made as a writer, you stick to writing because you have your own profound reason for doing so.