Roundup: Why We Write

As we look forward to updating the Ploughshares blog for the new year, we’re also looking back at all the great posts since the blog started in 2009.  Our roundups explore the archives and gather past posts around a certain theme to help you jump-start your week.  This week we have posts on why we write.

Writers spend a lot of time talking about how we write, what we write about, how to revise, how to get our writing published, and how to promote something that is published.  In the crush of trying to do what we do better, we sometimes forget to step back and take a look at the why.  This week we’ve gathered posts that ask the question “Why do we write?”

• Greg Shutz tackles this question through the metaphor of fishing in “Why I Fish Is Why I Write.”

• Scott Nadelson argues that images or ideas that frighten us can also compel us to write.

• How far does this go?  Peter B. Hyland explores the ethical limits of writing in “But Art Just Isn’t Worth That Much.”

• Aimee Nezhukumatathil tells us about her writing drought and what ended it.

• In “Try Anything Else,” David S. MacLean recounts his job history and how he ended up a writer.

• To conclude, we have a letter from Greg Shutz to a fiction teacher who helped inspire and shape him as a writer.

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