Open Thread: Oracle Hotline

[mithen]

--Why do you choose to write?

...is an interestingly-open question because "choose" is such an odd word there. I guess I would gloss that as "What do you get out of writing?" For me it's--at its best--a sort of meditation. When the words are coming smoothly I feel no anxiety about anything, no worries about the future, no fretting about the past, it's just me and the words. If I can get ten minutes of that now and then, I'll keep writing forever. And I've had a lot of that flow this week, though grabbing the time has been a challenge! But I will confess I finished writing a passage and then pumped my fist and said out loud "This is good," which is so unlike me that I immediately started laughing. :P I hope you've had some of that feeling yourself this week!

Comments

[me_ya_ri]

"Choose" is definitely an odd word choice. There is no choice for me. I write because I feel better when I get the stories out of my head. I also write because I want to quit my day job. I write because I want to read stories with not-white not-straight not-cis not-men going on great adventures, falling in love and having happy endings and that's hard to find. I write because I want to change the world. I write to understand the world and my place in it. I write to make people laugh and think and occasionally cringe and ponder what they do / think / believe.

I write because I write. I wouldn't be me if I weren't a writer. My two year battle with writer's block taught me that a non-writing me is a very unhappy person.

I will confess I finished writing a passage and then pumped my fist and said out loud "This is good,"

That feeling is the best isn't it? I had the opposite one yesterday during my editing efforts. Read over three chapters of the current novel and cringed because they were clunky, ineffective, distancing and just plain bad. So I'm redrafting those three chapters. I can't have my big climax to the trilogy reading that poorly. *shudders* At least the first of the redrafted chapters was a ton better.

Good luck with your writing this week!

[mithen]

"I write because I write," I love that! And a two-year battle with writer's block? Were you on LJ at the time? I shudder to imagine it!

Read over three chapters of the current novel and cringed because they were clunky, ineffective, distancing and just plain bad. So I'm redrafting those three chapters. I can't have my big climax to the trilogy reading that poorly.

Ooooh, but at least you could see it! I'm TERRIBLE at telling when something's gone wrong, and REALLY terrible at figuring out what it is even when I can see it! *clings to beta* I'm glad to hear the rewrite felt satisfying and I'm sure it'll be for the best in the long run!

[prince0froses]

I don't know if I could call it a choice. My brain is wired to make characters and stories, to put words together, to crave a narrative so badly that I make it myself. I've been doing poetry since I was 11, RP since I was 13, and prose not long after. It's a part of me. I'd still do it even if my main project withered and died.

I am, however, very afraid of that latter prospect, because here I must make the distinction between 'having a writer's brain and compulsively storytelling and roleplaying' and 'actually writing'. Because a lot of times, I can't choose to write. I hate to think of myself this way, I hate to admit it, but mental health and some other factors leave me disabled. And a lot of standard 'force yourself', 'you're not a writer unless you write' advice is ableist when applied to me.

So, I guess my answer to "Why do you choose to write/what do you get out of writing?" is this: I can't not do it in my head, that part of me is turned on 99% of the time even if I can't do anything with it at the time, and I get validation and joy when other people like the things I've come up with, so when I'm physically able to I bring it out of my head and show you.

[mithen]

Yes, this is a good way of putting it! And I will definitely be keeping my fingers crossed that the physical-mental aspect comes back to you! It makes it even more of a gift when it is possible, then...