... and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?

The poll results are in: out of eleven respondents, four (36%) believe that fiction writers and poets write primarily to communicate with others, while seven (64%) believe that those writers write first for themselves as artistic expression.  


When applying the same question only to themselves, just two (18%) said they write primarily for others, while nine (82%) said they write for themselves first.  The response rate was just under fifty percent, with eleven out of twenty-four writers answering (including myself).


As I mentioned before, the questions can become more complex as they are discussed, and judging by the comments (thanks, Andi and Jane), the answers can be quite involved.  Although the poll may have seemed simplistic and inadequate, I believe many qualified answers can actually fall into one or the other category.  


For instance, writing to preserve history can be considered writing for others, since this really goes to the title of this and the previous blog entries; if history is recorded but no one reads it, is it really preserved?  One may write down one's family history and not care at the time if it remains hidden in a desk drawer or forgotten in an attic, but if no one ever discovers and reads it years or decades later, would the writer have considered the effort worthwhile?


Or consider writing to make sense of an experience.  This could fall under writing for oneself, since the person benefitting from bringing order out of chaos is the writer.  It may subsequently affect or enrich others, too, but the making sense part is coming from the writer, primarily for the writer.


Personally, I write to express myself as a creative outlet.  I would like others to read my stories, but if no one does, that's okay; it does not devalue what I have written or diminish my experience of writing, and it's not why I write in the first place.  If I were on a desert island with no chance of being rescued or of my work being discovered on the island years later, I would still write (provided I could re-create the pen, ink, and paper).  


Thanks to my friend Guy for asking an important, relevant question and sparking discussion among my writer friends far beyond the casual lunchtime chat that gave birth to the poll!