“No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.” –Samuel Johnson.
I used to agree but have changed my mind. There are other reasons, whether or not you’re a blockhead, or as my Dad used to call me and my two brothers, a jughead, a jarhead, or a junkhead.
An important reason is organizing your thoughts. Some people are naturally ex temporaneous talkers, but some of us need the written word to know what we really think about something. “I write entirely to know what I think,” said, I think, Joan Didion. There is also a certain humble satisfaction in simply ordering your thoughts, especially when they are chaotic or confusingly digressive.
Sometimes for me this is as simple as writing a checklist of what to do the next day. At better times, it takes the form of an orderly and persuasive essay. Or a mildly interesting blog.