Classic Women Writer Ponder: "Why Write?"

Today's Literary Ladies Lite edition presents 5 unique views

Many of us who scratch out sentences and paragraphs that we hope to turn into publishable (or at least readable) prose have pondered the question, “why write?” When writing is going well, it can be all-consuming, as passionate as a love affair. But when the going gets tough and/or when self-doubt creeps in, “why?” can become “what’s the point?”

Here, five classic women authors weigh in on the “why” of writing—for whom are you writing, and for what purpose? As in all matters of art, there’s no consensus here.

Why do you write? Is it a question worth pondering, or is it best not to dwell on it, as Zora Neale Hurston suggests at the end of this post?

Write to please only yourself

“This is certain: I never have written a line except to please myself. I never have written with an eye to what is called the public or the market or the trend or the editor or the reviewer.

Good or bad, popular or unpopular, lasting or ephemeral, the words I have put down on paper were the best words I could summon at the time to express the thing I wanted more than anything else to say.” —Edna Ferber (1885-1968)