In his essay Why I Write the author, George Orwell, opens up about his conscious nature of being a writer and not only talks about his evolution as a writer, but also tells readers the reasons why a writer writes.  Orwell talks about how he started writing at a young age and as he got older, he played around with different literary activities.  For example, at age five he was writing poems, at age fourteen he wrote a play and as he got a little older, he started to make up a “story” about himself in his mind, almost as if he were self-narrating.  He then goes on to explain some of the motives of why a writer writes.  Orwell lists four reasons; Sheer egoism, aesthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse and political impulse.  He addresses that he does partake in each of these motives; however, he cannot determine which one of these is the strongest motive.  He states that even though all writers have different motives, what they do have in common is that even under their own motives, there still “lies a mystery” and writing itself can be difficult process.