Do you write to entertain? Or is there more to it than that?

I'm following on from my waffling about humour, and writing to make each other laugh - there were some really thoughtful comments, which had me taking a step beyond funny and wondering if we can pinpoint what we are hoping to do when we write - on blogs, or short stories, or poems (whatever!)

The more I thought about it, the more complex the whole thing seems. I suspect there are as many reasons for writing as there are writers, so I'm only speaking for myself here.

I'll begin by thinking why I read. Because I love it - yes, but that's not enough. I want to be entertained, but I want more than that. I want to find new ideas, to engage with new thinking, to be asked to look at the familiar from an unfamiliar angle. I want to understand how other people feel, to read about others tackling the daily challenge of getting up and edging a way through the day - it cements us sharing a common humanity, if you like, knowing that other people need a cup of tea in the morning, or enjoy of twinge of trolley rage in the aisles of Tesco's.

I write because I breathe - I can't imagine not writing. But that doesn't explain why I write on blogs, or publish the travel writing, or play about with poetry and short stories. I hope to entertain; it has to begin there. I'm not sure I claim to play with new ideas - though there may be readers who barely know where Laos is, so anything I say about it has to be new and potentially informative. I rarely share very personal, private feelings - though don't shy away from making fun of myself and my girliness when faced with rats (or tigers). I have the occasional rant, but would rather celebrate the fun we can have than waste energy whinging about things I can't change. If any of this is funny - well, that's a bonus. And then my thinking seems to degenerate into it being satisfying, this reaching out to total strangers (and many not so strange now, after blogging for a year or more), but I don't think I can be more specific than that.

Does it matter? Maybe it doesn't. But sometimes it's worth thinking about, given that I blog away regularly and hope others will read and enjoy it. Are there any other bloggers out there who have a clearer idea as to why they write?