Why do we write?

Sniffling my way through the worst flu/cold bugs I've ever had - three weeks of being down with one illness, then another - and I've had tons of time to think. Unfortunately, not a lot of energy, but that's another story.

And I've been thinking about the motivation of writers, egged on after reading Evanne's post on the Writing Life ( April 2, 2007 ). Why write? For the money, for the prestige, for the lifestyle, for the pure joy of it? I'm sure for many writers, one of these hits the mark - perhaps a little of many of these. I'm not sure there's lots of money or prestige, unless you're Stephen King or you win the Pulitzer.

Lifestyle? Well, writing could be a flexible job, but it's a lot of work to be good at it and make any amount of money. I suppose you could be bad at it and make some money - c'mon, I know we've all read books and thought, "A monkey could write better than that." But, in general, having some talent is helpful to making money.

So do we do this for money or love? Like I said, few make bizillions of dollars, but many aspire to. Writers avidly follow market news and hit the hot trends - witness the slew of vampires and other supernatural creatures showing up after "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" hit it big. (Love that show!) Or they try to be ahead of the trends, anticipating what readers want and writing it for them.

In a way, it reminds me of politicians chasing polls - give the people what they want. Or what they don't want yet, but will once I write it. The mark of a good writer, to get people caught up in their plot or characters.

But where is the writer's will in this? Do writers set out to write what they want to write or what the market wants? If you only write what you want, then this seems like a huge exercise in navel-gazing. Narcissistic in the extreme. But if you're writing only what the market wants, then are you telling a tale worthy of being told? Like most reality television, you may have viewers but no value.

So perhaps the answer lies in being a mix of the two - a story you want to write for a market that is open to reading it. If you're really good, you write something worthwhile, that affects people to the core and stays with them, whether they asked for it or not. I think of books like "The Kite Runner" or "Angle of Repose" or "To Kill a Mockingbird" - my all-time favorite. Was there a publisher out there saying, "What readers are really searching for is a book that a) examines pre-, post- Soviet-invasion Afghanistan, b) follows a woman throughout her marriage to an engineer on the Western frontier, or c) tells the story of a white lawyer defending a black man in the deep South"?

Not likely. These were writers who had a story to tell, and they told it - beautifully, majestically, painfully at times. And, of course, there's much more to their stories than my glib descriptions. Some wise and fortunate publisher had the opportunity to let these works out to the world, but even now some of them aren't appreciated. I believe Wallace Stegner's "Angle of Repose" is the only Pulitzer Prize winner for literature never to be reviewed by the New York Times. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong.)

Most of this doesn't apply to me. I'm writing romance, right now at least - happy endings only please. I write because I like the stories in my head. I write because the characters want to get out on paper. I write because I like it. Am I challenging the market? No. But I can't say I'm following it either.

I'm curious. What do other writers write for?