Why I Blog (A Ranking of 4 Motives)

“Putting aside the need to earn a living, I think there are four great motives for writing, at any rate for writing prose. They exist in different degrees in every writer, and in any one writer the proportions will vary from time to time, according to the atmosphere in which he is living.” ~ George Orwell, Why I Write (1946)

I was gearing up to write a post on the reasons why I blog, when I came across snippets of Orwell’s thoughts on the four great motives for writing. I saw several parallels, and was forced to reckon the degree to which each motive exists in me whenever I decide to hit the Publish button here.

Sharing with you the four motives here, in a sort of countdown (because I rarely get to introduce suspense in my blog otherwise, so please bear with me) from what I think is generally my weakest to my strongest motive.

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4. Desire to record facts for future generations [Historical impulse]

“Historical impulse. Desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity.” ~ George Orwell, Why I Write (1946)

This is my weakest motive for writing a blog. Although I do occasionally include news or facts in my writing, they’re mostly just a springboard for my thoughts on the matter…and my thoughts are not facts, haha.

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3. Desire to share a beautiful or valuable experience, in a beautiful way [Aesthetic enthusiasm]

“Aesthetic enthusiasm. Perception of beauty in the external world, or, on the other hand, in words and their right arrangement. Pleasure in the impact of one sound on another, in the firmness of good prose or the rhythm of a good story. Desire to share an experience which one feels is valuable and ought not to be missed. The aesthetic motive is very feeble in a lot of writers, but even a pamphleteer or writer of textbooks will have pet words and phrases which appeal to him for non-utilitarian reasons; or he may feel strongly about typography, width of margins, etc.” ~ George Orwell, Why I Write (1946)

Part of the reason why I blog is so I can share experiences which I feel are “valuable and ought not to be missed,” and challenge myself to present them in a good way, as far as I am able. I’m a sucker for a well-structured piece of writing, a clever turn of phrase, an apt analogy, a seamless transition—and in blogging, I challenge myself to develop these things, too.

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2. Desire to change the world, or at least some aspect of it [Political purpose]

“Political purpose. — Using the word ‘political’ in the widest possible sense. Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other peoples’ idea of the kind of society that they should strive after.” ~ George Orwell, Why I Write (1946)

This is one of the stronger motives for me, especially when I write about mental health. This blog has become a platform for me to raise awareness about mental health issues, and to contribute what I can in eliminating the stigma against mental illness. I don’t think the things I write will ever have an impact big enough “to push the world in a certain direction,” but that won’t stop me from trying. If I managed to inform at least one other person a little more about what depression is or what might be done to help people with mental illness, then my writing will not have been in vain.

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1. Desire to satisfy self-interest [Sheer egoism]

“Sheer egoism. Desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, to get your own back on the grown-ups who snubbed you in childhood, etc., etc. It is humbug to pretend this is not a motive, and a strong one. Writers share this characteristic with scientists, artists, politicians, lawyers, soldiers, successful businessmen — in short, with the whole top crust of humanity. The great mass of human beings are not acutely selfish. After the age of about thirty they almost abandon the sense of being individuals at all — and live chiefly for others, or are simply smothered under drudgery. But there is also the minority of gifted, willful people who are determined to live their own lives to the end, and writers belong in this class. Serious writers, I should say, are on the whole more vain and self-centered than journalists, though less interested in money.” ~ George Orwell, Why I Write (1946)

Yes, because who am I trying to kid here. Before this blog took on any political purpose, I’ve been writing for myself for the longest time. I have been journaling in private about my innermost thoughts and feelings for over a decade now, and blogging has been an extension of that tendency, this time available to anyone who cared to read.

Writing, to me, is mostly a way of capturing my thoughts and feelings at a particular point in time, like a photograph of my inner life or a “selfie of my soul,” if you will. Most of the time, I don’t even know how I look like until after I’ve taken that selfie and looked at it from the outside. Privately, I like getting to have that snapshot I could go back to at a later time (a throwback!) to see how much I’ve changed, or whether I’ve changed at all. In the context of blogging in particular, I get to post that selfie for others to see. And for what? Maybe I am seeking validation, maybe I am under the impression that people care about what I think, maybe it is out of what Orwell described as the “desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death.”

Whichever the explanation, it can’t be denied that a large motive for my blogging is *it hurts to say this, but* sheer egoism. I want my words to live on even after I’m gone. This is a large part of what this blog is for. This is an understandable reaction, I think (and this is where I rationalize the egoism), to the realization that my time here on Earth is finite, and this too is a confession that I really still don’t know why I’m here at all.

This blog is part of my creating a purpose for being here, that maybe in the briefest time I got to be part of this universe, it will have mattered that I existed. That I will have helped, comforted, informed, or inspired someone else through my words, through this blog (See here now, maybe I do try to infuse it with political purpose, or even altruism…but by how much, I’m never sure). It comforts me to know that even if I drop dead tomorrow, I will have left something behind that’ll outlive me, that’ll continue speaking to others even after I’m gone.

“Like everyone else, I am going to die. But the words – the words live on for as long as there are readers to see them, audiences to hear them. It is immortality by proxy.” ~ J. Michael Straczynski

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That’s it for Orwell’s list, although specifically for blogging I might add a fifth motive, the desire to connect. Writing a book/novel (which is what Orwell talked about) is not entirely the same as blogging. Blogging involves a community, where one gets to give and receive immediate reactions and feedback, and hold conversations with people from all walks of life. I’ve learned so much from connecting with others through their own blogs, and through conversations that happen in the comments section. With this, I’d also like to take a moment to say—Thank you! for allowing me to be part of this community, and for being just cool people to hang out with over here at the blogosphere. 🙂

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How about you? Why do you write? Why do you blog? How would you rank the four motives for yourself? And, if you could add any other motive to this list, what would it be?

I shall leave you with those questions, and with a final quote from Orwell:

“All writers are vain, selfish, and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a mystery. Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. For all one knows that demon is simply the same instinct that makes a baby squall for attention. And yet it is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one’s own personality. Good prose is like a windowpane. I cannot say with certainty which of my motives are the strongest, but I know which of them deserve to be followed.” ~ George Orwell, Why I Write (1946)

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Image by marco fossati via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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This entry is part of my undertaking a 30-day challenge Matt Cutts talked about at TED2011. The premise is to “think about something you’ve always wanted to add to your life and try it for the next 30 days.” I am challenging myself to post one blog entry a day for 30 consecutive days. [I’ve given up on the ‘consecutive’ part, though.]

Today is Day 30 (finally!).

I guess this challenge proved I’m not built for daily blogging, but I want to be able to post more regularly here, so I’ll start following a schedule.

New post every Sunday, folks! 🙂

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