I love reading, and I think I can write the kind of story I love to read. So I try.
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That isā¦a really good question, actually.
Why do I write? I donāt know actually, I just like writing. It offers me an outlet to express my feelings at the moment (anger, frustration, pain etc.), if I had to guess why I like it.
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Well, Iām kind of glad and sad to see Iām not the only one with social disturbances around here to say it somehow.
As for my reason, I was pretty much alone as always and spending too much time on computer games without going anywhere, in the social and general goal kind of way. Being alone in real life for me also traslated to online games, which defies the purpose of the mechanics of such games so I was doomed even before start. So the frustration got accumulated and then I decided to put my effort somewhere else.
Iām used to make my own things when I canāt get them, Iām kind of versatile designing and creating and working with tools and learning things on my own, so thereās that, and Iāve already had the idea of the story on my mind so I quit pc games and went right to creating them instead of playing, I have to admit that it started small and clumsy and it was honestly horrible in any sence you can imagine, naturally because itās the first time I ever tried to make something like this, but It hasnāt stopped growing since then.
Iāll stop scrambling around and say that I write mostly for myself, it is a project that started a long time ago and even with the ups and downs of time and effort put into it I never put it down for good. I write because it is a way of spending my time that hopefully would give me much greater satisfaction than playing games at the end, and, yeah, my brain sometimes canāt stop get obsessive about some subjects. No having social life also helps to invest more time on it (kind of).
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Nice poem!
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you should see the one I write about coffeeā¦and the couch 
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The act of writing feels like what I imagine social work is like.
After a cup of coffee, Iāve got an orphanage full of malformed homeless notions. I have no idea where they came from but I feel an obligation find them all loving families.
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I think its the DM in me wanting to come outā¦ create worlds, systems that feel alive, etc. Then, the question would why there is a DM in me? I guess that can be traced back to the discovery of RPGs (the paper version) in my early teensā¦ which were better than any other games we were playingā¦ you can then go further back to games like risk, stretego, etcā¦ until you maybe arrive atā¦ chess, I think. The earliest memory I have of playing any game was my cousin teaching me (well, trying to teach meā¦ I remember feeling confused by it all at the time), when I must have been something like 4 or 5 (or something like that). I also remember how a few years later they got a beautiful chess stone boardā¦ many of the pieces were fragile and had to be stuck together many timesā¦ soā¦ I love games, and these stories are just a derivation of my love of games (I think of my stories more as gamesā¦ where the logic of your actions and the world will lead to different outcomes, which even I cannot fully map, despite writing them).
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I agree with your statement and I feel like my drive to write resides in escapism, what-ifs, as well as the opportunity to give someone something to think about.
I love stories for their worldbuilding, but also the philosophy and ideas they may give. I like to learn things like history, science, politics, and philosophy and those things are what inspire me to write.
To write a story about a āwhat if?ā in history, in our world, or in a fictional place and use that āwhat ifā to say something about the world we live in or something I just want to get off my chest.
When I write a story, I like to call myself a ādiscovery writer.ā I donāt make a timeline or story plan, I write my stories like a rubber band. I just stretch it and stretch it through several drafts until it reaches its maximum point. I donāt create timelines or planners, I just like to write through the course of numerous drafts that allow me to reflect and understand what I want more and more.
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I am not the kind of writer that anyone will ever aspire to be, given the fact that I donāt write that often. But sometimes I do write, and let me tell you the story of those rare occasions when I do.
Story telling is like an adventure expedition for me. I like exploring conflicts, moral dilemma, and sometimes just plain good old fashioned villainy; drama, angst and all other human emotions; and how different people react to it.
I like observing people. Everyone has a story about them. I like to try to walk in their shoes. Some of the stories look mundane from the outset, for example, an A+ student who aced high school and went to an ivy league college. They have never been in trouble for anything, havenāt thrown a punch at anyone, so basically, nothing too exciting from the outset. But how is their life from the studentās perspective? Do they not want to live a more colorful life like the highschool quarterback? Do they always like to play by the rules, or sometimes they feel restricted by them, and still decides to abide by them because they have a reputation to uphold? Do they ever feel they are misunderstood? There is always so much to explore in the sea of possibilities which look so quiet and peaceful(and maybe even dull) from afar.
Another thing that interests me is how people act. Different people react to a situation differently. Why is that? What is their story? What is their motive? What kind of moral conflicts may arise in a certain situation? For exampleā¦ Can someone be betrayed by their best friend? āFor the right price, yesā. Now itās up to me to try to analyze the characters and find the right price. How does the friend who betrayed feel about the whole ordeal? How does it change their interaction with other characters, say, family members? There are so many angles, so many possibilities that staying faithful to the story, being as believable as possible without giving in to chaotic melodrama and larger than life portrayals is a challenge. And I find that challenge interesting.
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Thatās what it means to be an author,to turn your ideas into reality,and make them accessible to a hell lot amounts of people!
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It doesnāt matter to me whether people like my stories or not.I wonāt blame them,but myself,because if my stories are about some real events and for the reader,theyāre not real enough,then that means that my character-making skills arenāt real enough,and if my story is set in a fictional world and the fiction doesnāt impress,that means that I donāt have an imaginative mind,which is a-supposedly-nightmare for any fiction writer(if not any,then atleast me).
Ideas canāt be created,and the best ideas,whether it be for a story or anything else,always come to mind when least expected
-A dumb kid
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Because the muse in my head wonāt leave me alone once it gets going until I get what it wants written.
I write a lot, but most of it is not Interactive Fiction, so Iāll set my motivations for creating those aside in order to pretend like you asked why I write IF 
I was given a CYOA gamebook when I was a kid, and I instantly fell head over heels in love with it despite the fact that the plot was boring as heck and the writing, uninspired.
I begged and wheedled until I got a dozen similar gamebooks, many much better constructed, and read and re-read my favorites until they were, quite literally, in tatters. Inexplicably, I then abandoned the genre for several decades, although I never completely forgot about it. 
It took me many, many, MANY years to figure out why I was so attached to IF in a way that I wasnāt with āregularā fiction, even though there are many novels and short stories that I love and treasure. Indeed, I even wrote one āregularā novel with multiple, simultaneously occurring stories that all converged at the end - and it wasnāt until long after it was published that I realized that it was clearly aping the Interactive Fiction format 
Soā¦ that long-winded introduction was my way of saying that I have always looked at āreal lifeā in a quantum, superpositional way that directly corresponds to the Interactive Fiction format, i.e. that a finite and rational number of wave functions or āpossible realitiesā exist, but only when the wave ācollapsesā (or the reader makes a choice) does the āfinal narrativeā get set in stone.
Andā¦ setting up all those quantum bowling pins (i.e. me writing IF), is incredibly, unbelievably exciting and satisfying in a deeply fundamental way.
The closest thing I can compare it to is when I first read Stephen Mitchellās translations of the Tao de Ching 
and my entire body, mind, and soul went āYES.ā
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I think I can relate to a lot of the responses here (in fact many seem to have factors in common between themselves as well!), but I will add something that hasnāt been touched on:
Because Iām good at it.
Far from wanting to sound egotistical, I mean it quite simply and honestly (and almost embarrassingly) in the sense that, ever since Iāve known myself, Iāve liked words and stories - and when making them myself, got to hear that I was good at that.
When youāre told youāre good at something, especially as a child, youāll naturally want to do it moreā¦ So it was gratifying for me to delve more into that and hear that what I made was good. Validation is nice after allā¦ 
Of course, once you grow up and mature you may come to see that differently and evolve (hopefully!)ā¦ and that happened for me as well. But still, doing things I feel Iām good at is satisfying even if Iām doing it by (or for) myself, and that very much applies to writing. I already like it because it tickles my brain; feeling like I can be good at it makes me like it even more.
As a slight aside, that also comes as a double edged sword, because it brings with it the struggle to do things you donāt feel good at. (This brief talk on how intelligence leads to avoidance makes a couple good points on what I mean.) This might bring with it things like not wanting to write in genres you donāt feel confident in already, because you donāt feel good at it from the get go and get insecure/frustrated.
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The first part of it is because I tend to daydream/dream a lot and end up with a lot of ideas in my head. Fantastic worlds, interesting charactersā¦ I canāt help but want to jot everything about them down before I forget. Which often causes me to wake up in the middle of the night lmao
The second part of it is because I honestly get some sort ofā¦ high/adrenaline rush from writing something good. It often takes me quite a while to get into the grove of writing; I usually feel miserable and lack confidence in my ability. But when I get into that groove; when words just flow freely and it feels like everything fits in the right placesā¦ man. It just feels so good.
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I think we are buddies, same problem.
Control.
I think thatās the bottom line for me. Mind you, I have written very little, that I share, but mainly itās a means for me to control something that I may have no control over in real life.
It doesnāt have to be something incredibly profound, but could simple be the decision of an author, movie maker or game designer to not focus on a character or situation that intrigues me. Something that leaves me wanting.
Writing allows me to fill that gap, allows me to write a what-if or simply give characters I enjoy, more attention.
It also allows for controlled experiences. Write something that may be controversial, or something you experience in a certain way and put it into words.
Itās also a sort of focus group/QA for my creative outlet. What do I like to write, am I any good at it?
Iāve found myself re-reading old stories, that I now find cringeworthy and I realized that Iāve grown, diverted from that obsession or simply know how to do it better or different.
Itās therapeutic and it can be incredibly motivating, especially if you get positive comments. What I write usually only has a small reader base and as such, comments of any nature are rare. At the same time, I sincerely do value constructive criticism, if I get it. If someone tells me that a certain scene is off or Iām using a term or phrase incorrectly or ended up using the same word a dozen times in two paragraphs, it helps me improve.
Regrettably, nowadays, it seems that itās rarer to get any sort of comment. If youāre lucky, youāll get a like or repost, but itās difficult to improve without actual comments and feedback.
So, yes, control, creative experimentation, satisfaction to know that someone may feel the same way you do and enjoys your version of events.
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