Slogging Insights: Why Did You Become a Writer?

I became a writer because, from a young age, stories (in many forms) captivated me in ways nothing else could.

Whether it be a sappy romance film/novel from Nicholas Sparks, a JRPG by Square Enix, or even the words or Shakespeare, stories changed my life. They made me the person I am today. And I know that if something I write can just make 1 person's life better, or if a piece of fiction I write can touch just 1 person to the point of tears, I can feel like I made a difference. I can feel value, and more importantly, happy. But why do other writers write? I started a thread in Slack to find out just that.

This Slogging thread by Limarc, Sidra Zafar, Ellen, Nadia Adalath, Taofeek, Tirtha, Amy Shah, Gimbiya Galadima, Marc Magrini, Davis David, Khunshan Ahmad and Jack Boreham occurred in hackernoon's official #fellowship-central channel, and has been edited for readability.

What made you want to become a writer? (be it full-time, freelance, or just for fun)

My research intensive degree(PhD) made me write. Like it or not we have to write summaries, reports and research papers. But now, I like to decompose complex scientific concepts into simple manuscripts. This way I can reach non-technical audience. I have started to enjoy writing for hackernoon. Especially when I see stats and reactions to my articles, I kind of feel accomplished 😊.

Natural predisposition + thoughts needed an out 🙂

Sidra Zafar taking complex ideas and making them sound simple is a difficult task and I'm happy you're up for the challenge 😄

For me, my writer journey started out as plagiarism 😮

When I was in the second grade, our teacher told us to write a story. We were 6 years old, so we had no idea what to do. I remember renting library books to find "inspiration". Then a thought in my 6-year-old brain popped up. "What if I just write down this picture book word for word? It's already a great book! Why go through the trouble of making me own?!" so that's what I did.

Then a few days later, we had to read these aloud to the class. When I finished reading mine, my teacher said "Wow...looks like there may be a future writer among us".

I was overjoyed to hear that praise and then the guilt set in. I didn't know what plagiarism was at the time (obviously) but on an instinctual level there was guilt for taking credit for something that wasn't mine.

I kind of made a silent vow then that the next time I got such praise it would be for something that I wrote. And the rest is history!

In terms of inspiration, reading the beautiful words of Final Fantasy games played a huge role in my love for narrative.

This is a great question! This is going to sound random and maybe even a little strange but for me, it was a gamble. At the end of high school, I didn't know what I wanted to do. But I was very good at English so I was browsing the program catalog and I noticed journalism. I didn't know what I was in for, but I decided to go for it anyway. When I graduated I didn't start my career right away. It took time. My first writing opportunity was at a gaming magazine, but because I was fresh out of college I felt like I needed more experience to develop my writing outside the classroom. My journey has had many twists and turns but I feel like, no matter what age you are if you have a passion for something stick with it.

I became accustomed to writing in the early days of my undergraduate program. I then joined relevant groups, including the Editorial board. There, I authored and edited several articles, and that helped improved my writing prowess.

After graduation, I became a full-time writer working with writing agencies.

Writing is adventurous. You will surely learn something even if you've only written few lines because writing necessitates reading.

It was said that if you have been stung by the zeal to write, without being stung by the zeal to read, then you've been stung by the wrong zeal.

During school days, I used to maintain a journal for few years. It had my thoughts written in a chaotic manner(encrypted with bad handwriting ), along with plenty of illustrations. cause I always preferred visualization over words.

Now at one point, I started writing for some small blogs/ news platforms - during that I had accustomed myself to write for others, in a structured way. Gradually realized the power of the pen and how my writing can also help others - that was a good enough reason for me to push out more.

Primarily I’m a voracious reader. Since the past 2-3 years, the subject horizon has decreased, but still do enjoy reading anything just to see how I comprehend the subject, what kind of questions do come in my mind - this showed me how my intellect has evolved over time.

Tirtha "Gradually realized the power of the pen and how my writing can also help others" I love that!

And if we wanna get deeper about it, I personally think stories change the world. Whether it be the stories you grew up with that taught you how to be a good person (for me that came in the form of games and anime) or the stories you tell yourself every day "my boss hates me," "I'm amazing at video games," "If only I had bigger muscles, I'd be more popular", stories make up our lives.

Learning to write better means learning to tell your story better and find the truth, and in the long run become a better version of yourself.

What about you Jack Boreham Amy Shah Marc Magrini Con Davis David Khunshan Ahmad ?

Perhaps not all stories are so inspiring... I think one of my earliest memories of myself as a writer was in elementary school in probably 3rd or 4th grade. We were told to write a story and share it with the class. So that meant actually standing in front of the class and telling your story. I remember laughing as I told my story and being excited to share. I saw some of the other students laughing too. And I thought they were laughing WITH me! Actually, they were not. They were making fun of my story. 😬😢

To paraphrase some famous person, "You are a writer because you write and because you just cant do anything else. "

Well no worries Amy. You're the one laughing now ☺💪

I have always enjoyed reading books: African literature was a significant part of my childhood. Professor Wole Soyinka, Buchi Emecheta, Chinua Achebe, and many others wrote interesting stories that I loved reading. I wrote my own stories from time to time and got commendations from my English teacher for my essays. I wrote more and more: now I have discovered that my love for writing is strong. Emotions are easier to express with the pen: somehow writing helped me in my period of grief and I dabbled into poetry. I trained myself to write articles when I worked as an intern for a health-based organization and I am still learning how to write better today.

I found I enjoyed writing after years of doing it for school. Eventually, it became second nature. I might not have much else to say in my journey towards loving writing, but I hope I can continue to spread my enjoyment to others.

It started with a plan to improve my typing speed. At first, I was not able to type without looking at the keyboard. To improve my typing speed, I joined few online programs and I learned a lot on how to type faster without looking at the keyboard. I started writing short paragraphs just to see my performance.
I then joined a company and they have a program for each developer to write few technical articles every year in the area of Data Science and Machine learning because it was a very new technology in my country. Since then, I continue writing articles and I really enjoy it😊

"Emotions are easier to express with the pen" - Yeah I feel that. Sometimes I got through the hardest times in ym life by writing them down or writing a story that encapsulated them.

I am a software engineer by profession, so I never scratched my writing side. But a few years ago, around 2015, I started to use Quora. Initially, I was a silent reader. But slowly, I began to comment a lot, then started to answer a lot, and then writing long answers like a storyteller. That is when I felt I could write content that people could like. But again, I never got a full grip on keywords and how to make a blog popular. That is when HN gave me the opportunity to learn and grow. I am so grateful to Limarc and the team. Loving my experience so far. ❤

Khunshan Ahmad during 2015-17, I loved following Quora, there were so many amazing writers. Really inspiring. Not sure of the current state of content there. But those chunks of stories from people and their lives felt comforting to read. So similar, yet so different. 🐦

True Tirtha. After that marketers started to use it a lot.

As a former member of a marketing team, I can verify what Khunshan said is true :rolling_on_the_floor_laughing: Our team used Quora effectively to generate leads for a while. Made content just for Quora or seeded questions on Quora for our content.

My passion for video games made me become a writer. I love games and writing, so it was a match made in heaven. As Limarc said, games' narratives also inspired me to become a writer, such as God of War. Currently, I'm a freelance writer, as I enjoy working for myself and the flexibility.