Why I do not want to write

Adesh Acharya
3 min readOct 13, 2021
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

I generally want to write. That is why I write. But there are also times when I do not want to write. Writing seems an archaic and futile activity in those instances. But I try to convince myself to write. Sometimes I manage to write, sometimes I don’t.

Listening to other writers, what I noticed was — all of us who write have more or less similar reasons.

But what about the reasons not to want to write? Do we all feel the same in that too? Do we have similar reasons in that too? I want to know.

(I am only talking about the want)

Here are mine:

  1. Writing is too boring: Yes, jotting texts on a blank page or paper is a pretty boring and mundane activity. Especially in this day and age of sophisticated machineries. For expression, there are Musical Instruments, Cameras, Videos and Animations, VRs, etc. which allow one to express in multiple forms at the same time. Why should I even be bothering with this boring word-to-page activity that doesn’t even let me get off my ass! Yes, I do know that other art-forms require writing too. Let some boring old man do it: Why should I bother with it? Other creators are out there travelling, animating, speaking, acting, dancing while I am doing this boring task of filling the pages no one even bothers to read!
  2. Writing is archaic: Yes, this is something even the Mesopotamians did 5000 years ago! Why the hell am I still doing this? Yes, there are blokes in this world who read and write, but that is no reason to persist with it! Like the above reason, there are tons of ways to understand, interpret and express my thoughts and emotions, this writing thing is too boring and old! I should explore other mediums.
  3. Writing is obsolete: I read an article on Medium the other day about this tool called Jarvis. So now, even AI systems can write! What’s the point of me writing if a bloody computer program can do it better than me? People never cared about my writing but they do seem to care about an AI writing! I think the days of writing are over. SEO driven + trend driven content + AI = death_of_a_writer. All that is surviving will be soon killed by AI systems promoted by greedy business-people and exploited by opportunistic content-creators. There is no point in writing. Writing is dead. Writing is boring, old and dead.
  4. Business > Writing: Yes, I understand that writing is a business too. And that is what bothers the hell out of me! The amount of time I spend on writing can be spent productively on some ‘real’ and ‘substantial’ business. Yes, I do understand that I write because I have to and I have to because I emotionally and psychologically need to. But I can quit bad habits, can’t I? This writing thing is stopping me from a lot of opportunities. I could be doing business in rockets and phones and planes and trains! Those things would surely treat me emotionally and psychologically! This writing thing is wasting my time and holding me back. I should be doing some realbusiness. I should be selling rice and vegetables. Now, that’s making a proper use of life! This writing thing is my weakness. It’s holding me back. I should move on from this into something substantial. Nobody cares about my writing anyways! Writing is boring, old, dead and futile.

Yet, I write.

And at this moment, I honestly want to write for the rest of my life.

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