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

[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...