Why Do Writers Write?

Let's face it - writing is a lonely and largely thankless profession. Not only do you have to create a unique idea out of thin air, but you then have to nurture and develop it over sometimes years of effort, only to see it rejected for publication again and again and again.

So what's the payoff?

For me, the main reason I write is to create 'worlds'. By that, I mean spending time completely immersed in the world of the book with the characters, the locations and the situations. On the occasions when this has happened to me, time has literally flown and the work itself has hardly required editing at all.

Anyone who has read the excellent book 'Flow' by Mihaly Chikczentmihaly or experienced it themselves will know what I mean.

Perhaps that is why so many great writers come to a sticky end through drink and drugs - they've experienced the 'flow' with their writing and so - when that flow dries up and their ideas don't come any more - they seek to recapture that feeling in other ways.

Any thoughts anyone?