Why do you write?

I am always busy with several collaborative projects (the Coffee Break Conference one, organizing panels for other conferences, editing a collective volume on textual re-use and so on) and this makes me encounter and collaborate with many other scholars. Once, after having heavily edited an article which I though was too weak (lacking a structure and repeating the same points randomly), I received as an answer that

"Your proposals are valid and stimulating and can certainly make the end-product effective, but they obviously make it into your product, not mine"

Now, I know, editors and authors will always argue. I also know that authors might be too sensitive about their own wording, etc., and that I might have been too "cruel" in cutting repetitions and the like. But let me now just focus on the (unwritten) background assumption of this sort of answers:

I write articles in order to express myself. To me, they are like my work of art. And no one has the right to tell a painter that she should paint in a different way, if this is not her way.

This is, to me, striking. I do not write articles to express myself (for that, I use blogposts, comments, emails and the like). I write articles to communicate ideas in an effective way. If someone can find a better way, one that is clearer and takes into account possible objections, I might probably resist, but in an argumented way (e.g., by saying that she has misunderstood my point X at line Z, or that her changes make my argument vulnerable to objection Y), and not because MY product has been violated.
Moreover, I (optimistically, I agree) see my articles as part of a collective enterprise (e.g. "enhancing the historical understanding of the philosphy of testimony" or "making Indian philosophy part of 'philosophy' tout court"). The end-result is, thus, for me much more important than the tools which will lead to it. In sum,

I write articles in order to contribute to the discussion of a problem. My articles are instrumental to something else and not an end-in-themselves. 

I should now add that I have nothing against the first approach. I will just try to avoid collaborating too closely with someone upholding it, as our different views will inevitably clash.

How do you feel about your articles and books? Why and for whom do you write?

For my collaborative projects, see here and here (on the Coffee Break Project), here (philosophy of Testimony), here (volume on quotations), here (my next projects) and here (my free reviews).