I’m sure someone has done research on this – can anyone tell me? Why do some of us have the urge to write? I don’t mean the way lots of people tell you “I’ve always wanted to write” when you tell them you’re a writer. I mean the urge to write that won’t take no for an answer.
I made comics in junior school, wrote a horrendous novel in my teens, wrote for anything and everything I could lay my hands on and wrote 8 more novels as an adult before I discovered I was more likely to get published writing non-fiction. (Henry Gee said something in his blog about you have to write some fiction to be a real writer – he might have a point).
Even now, with a good few books under my belt I can’t help writing at every possible opportunity. Is it an addiction? Is it a genetic flaw? Is there a psychologist in the house?
... next: what makes writers right?
I too have pretty much always had the urge to write – in fairness I have written [or mostly written] technical books before. And, I think I could do the same again. However, my heart isn’t in technical-writing these days [it’s too much ‘me too’, i.e., nothing’s terribly new or exciting].
I’d like to write popular-science stuff like you. The problem is that the style/audience is quite different – and I believe I’d be pretty crap. And – do I really want to put in the effort, just to discover that my theory is correct? I think not.
So, whereas you are driven to write, I have decided to be driven in another direction: to think about women, to the [almost] exclusion of everything else!
A primitive craving for approval.
I could live with the craving for approval bit, but I like to think of it as a sophisticated craving for approval.