What is so appealing about writing a book?

[callywag]

If you're currently working or hoping to have your writing published, what is it that makes this idea so desirable?

I ask as someone who still harbours ambitions in this regard but for reasons I don't really understand - as I know from experience it's not all it's cracked up to be.

Some years ago, I had two books traditionally published. I got a little bit of money, a little bit of attention, a few reviews, and then it all got forgotten about. It was exciting for a few weeks but neither the money nor the excitement was worth the huge amount of work. I was undoubtedly working for less than minimum wage once everything was totted up.

Now, very occasionally, I get asked to speak to rooms of hopeful as-yet-unpublished writers and the yearning to be published is so strong, for so many people. Having one's name on a book they've written still seems to hold an almost mythical appeal. Indeed, I still consider doing it all again myself even though I know what a disappointment it is (for 99% of authors anyway, obviously there are always those rare runaway successes)

Why? What is it about having written an actual published book that is so appealing? I'm honestly not sure.

Agree, agree, agree!

I'm wondering what the point in this thread is.

Many people have a dream. Some achievable, some not achievable. People long to see their name on a football team, on a film, MD of a company, best score in something, displayed in a gallery etc.

I'm not sure if the Op meant to, but to me she comes across as condescending. "I've done it, and it really isn't that big a deal. Why are you all bothering?"

You could say the same about anyone's dream. It's only vanity and why bother.
But I'd argue that it's good for someone to have a dream, something they want to do, that gets them up in the morning, and keeps the spark in their eyes.
I've had a period of deep depression when I lost all my dreams. It's not a good thing.

Keep your dreams and keep striving to achieve them, whatever others think, even if it's a tiny thing. Keep going.

This. I can’t ‘not’ write. I have a head full of characters and need to get them onto paper to see how their stories develop. It’s fun and I’m utterly miserable if I don’t. I have no wish (so far) to be published, it’s just for myself.

But if it was all about the vanity, nobody would ever use a pen name - and plenty do. They aren't seeing 'their' name in bookshops, but they are seeing their product. If people only ever wrote for vanity reasons, nobody would write anything without a definite promise that it would be in print and published. Lots write on spec with no contract.

I disagree with your suggestion that it's all about vanity.

Yes, it's nice to see someone reading a book with your name/pen name on the cover, or to see it in the window of a bookshop/top of a sales chart etc...

It also makes you very vulnerable when you have your work published.
No matter how fantastic it might be, someone will hate it enough to give it a 1 star review and tell you at length how awful it is.
Vain people don't open themselves up to that much criticism.

Just like I'll bet it's a rush to win a medal at the Olympics, but you don't say swimmers just learn to swim that well because of vanity, or Nobel prize winners just do their research purely based on vanity.
Similarly, writers write for a host of reasons, but that doesn't mean it's mostly vanity based.

If it was all about vanity, it's simple enough to get a copy uploaded and printed by Amazon with software most people have access to if they don't want to pay someone else to format it.
You can even buy them pretty cheaply if you get author copies, so having a whole bookcase of books with your name on them is easily done.

I don't think asking what drives people's dreams is condescending. It's rather incurious to dismiss the topic of conversation with 'people just have dreams ok, deal with it'

What I'm interested in is how and why people decide on certain aspirations and ambitions.

The fact I've written a few books is only relevant in that I'm particularly interested in what motivates people to do things again. I could just have easily have said 'I've run two marathons, it was mostly awful, but yet I'm training for my next one. Why?'

It wasn't the asking a question that sounded condescending, but the comments you made:

as I know from experience it's not all it's cracked up to be.

I got a little bit of money, a little bit of attention, a few reviews, and then it all got forgotten about. It was exciting for a few weeks but neither the money nor the excitement was worth the huge amount of work.

but I'm afraid that vanity does tend to be the overriding motivation.

It comes across a bit like David Beckham going to a football training session and saying "don't know why you all want to play for England; it's not all it's cracked up to be: Boring and not worth it."

@MargaretThursday Exactly.

That analogy doesn't work at all because I'm not the David Beckham of writing and I'm not talking to 'trainees'. I'm someone with a hobby talking to other people with the hobby about what makes us do it - when we can all agree it can be quite demoralising at times.

Some people on this thread have been published, some haven't, it really makes quite little difference to what is simply some armchair analysis of psychology and ambition.

I don't think OP is being condescending - it's a curiosity to want to know what keeps people doing something that earns them (on average) very little, even supposing they strike it lucky and get a contract from a publisher. Why would anyone put themselves through the nine months or so of actual writing and then go on to the humiliation of submission, the misery of bad reviews and being dropped from publishers and agents; the desperate striving to write something good and then see it rise for a few moments only to sink again without trace.

There aren't many jobs that are compararable to being an author, where you are employed by a publisher - except you're not, you can earn almost nothing for years of work, you open yourself up to the most awful abuse from the public (just check out some reviews!)...the only reason I can come up with is that I do it because I love it (and sometimes the money isn't THAT bad, but then I've got more than 25 books out there...).

I think for a lot of people it's a hobby, and then if there's a payoff at the end, even if it's small, that's lovely. A lot of people do hobbies that would absolutely never be monetizeable, so seeing it as below minimum wage is a bit short sighted. If you have to see it as a job and calculate the money that way, then you might be in the wrong job.

Of course some people truly write as a means to make a living, but I don't think that's what the people on this thread are striving for.

Just found this thread and I think it's a really interesting question. I had a free counselling-cum-coaching session recently and said I wanted to explore what to do with my writing - my life - as I have written 2 novels and despite a little initial interest from agents, I don't have one and am not published. Apart from early short stories.

A different view on the vanity idea is that being traditionally published is validation. For me this spiralled into a big consideration of why I might want or need such validation. I'm not one who can't not write, as others have said. My dream was more of the life of being a writer as my full time work. Even after 10 years of squeezing it in around paid career and parenting and family responsibilities, when it quickly became clear that was most unlikely to happen.

I haven't written for a while. I have another creative pursuit that doesn't require gatekeepers to value it and I have been spending time on that. Still wish for the writing life though.

I am contemplating a different type of writing project, creative non fiction (the completed novels were for children, a crowded market). But not sure how I feel about it all at the moment.
Partly an age thing for me - publishing is a business and they want to know someone will keep producing the goods for at least long enough to make decent money, fair enough).

I want to know if I can do it

For me writing is like having a lucid dream, getting to live and experience things I never would in real life. I'm just over halfway through a novel length story and it's so exciting for me, I genuinely love the story I have written and live inside it half the time, when out and about or when I see something that inspires me.

Of course I would love to have my story published, and it would be great to make money out of it for the freedom it would bring, but that is but a pipe dream, so would be almost as happy to publish my story in a free portal/web page of some sort for readers to enjoy and comment. Positive comments would feel wonderful, if readers would enjoy the story as much as I have!

What fuels my writing is wanting to create worlds that are in my head and characters that I want to write about, often partly inspired by people I have come across. I also am very motivated by societal issues which feature heavily in my story.

It sounds as though you are writing for the right reasons. Just be aware that, as soon as you put your story out there, you won't just get positive comments though. Develop yourself a thick skin first, so you can cope with the inevitable slating and attempts to drag your words through the mud (and yes, this happens to even the best and most lauded works of fiction - check out some very famous books' reviews on Amazon!).

I have a head full of characters and need to get them onto paper to see how their stories develop.

I'm right at the beginning of all this writing lark, and that is exactly how I feel too. There are so many people, scenes and events going round and round in my brain, and I want to bring all the random threads together into a proper story. At the moment, I'm just scribbling down notes and a timeline, and seeing where it leads me. Making it up as I go along, and making a lot of stupid mistakes too, no doubt.

Funnily enough, there are two things which have prodded me into action. One is my DD. We were sitting drinking coffee in a garden centre cafe, and I mentioned this tale I was thinking of. I gave her the gist and she said that I had to write it because she wanted to read it when it was finished!

The other, strangely, was right here on MN. On some thread or other a few years ago, one of my posts was well received, and someone commented saying "Please write books OP!". That stuck with me, so whoever you are, thank you. I'm going to try.

When it comes down to it, I'm not writing for any reason other than trying to bring all these different threads together into a logical sequence, with a beginning, a middle and an end. I want to get it down on paper before I forget it all.

I write because it's something I think I'm good at and I get joy from creating characters and plots and from crafting sentences.

I've written a novel - I'm now at the editing stage and, yes, I would like to be traditionally published - because it would be lovely to have people read what I've written! And hopefully enjoy it and be moved by it.

But if I didn't get a publisher, I wouldn't feel that I've wasted my time because I've learnt so much from the process.

It's different to writing a short story. It's more challenging, to me, but it's satisfying to see the story develop, in fuller and less expected ways. I never had the confidence to try this till now, and it's slow going. I've got two and a bit pages down in two weeks, I'm curious how far it will go

I write because I always have and have invented stories since childhood. I also quite enjoy it - not the editing, though - even though it can be a slog. I self-publish, which I sometimes think is a sort of 'get out of jail free' card, but then I look at what does get 'properly' published and tear my hair. I sell at indie book fairs and online - it's not a living!