I love this Brain Pickings post on George Orwell’s philosophy for why writers are compelled to write. According to GO (one of my favourite writers), it comes down to:
- Sheer egoism
- Aesthetic enthusiasm
- Historical impulse
- Political purpose
This is in stark contrast to today’s writing culture, where we have writers who say that their only motivation is to write for their readers.
I say bollocks to this falsely modest reasoning – I think writers inherently write for themselves and are pushing their own agenda, whatever that may be.
And writers should not feel pressured to be PC about why they write. It dumbs the process and the craft and the result down. How many artists do you know who say they create their art just for the viewer?