I once wrote a scene in which a character strapped on a jetpack and did something heroic. For two weeks I bounced on my toes with each step, as if I were about to take flight.
More than once I've been caught talking to myself about dialogue I've written the previous day or week. In these cases it's always bad word choice, and my brain just won't let me go on with my life until I make the words more realistic.
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I often find myself wondering what happens next when I finish one of my stories. I want to sit down and write what happens next. I feel what they characters feel and I relate to them. I believe it was John Barth (feel free to correct me on this) who called it "self-psychotherapy through fiction".
Rux :}
p.s. Nice name, Lazarus. You should read the posts on Starship Troopers.
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I spin my soul into my work. The emotions and feelings being ripped from me into the paper are experienced by me as they leave, yes.
Posts: 697 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I'd actually say it's a good sign. You can't write truly emotional work without investing your own emotions. Now, it if goes on for too long, then I'd start to get concerned. Posts: 3567 | Registered: May 2003
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I've got one short story that my son says should be a novel, but I told him that would be emotional suicide for me. It's a depressing tale, and I know I'd be a basket case if I spent as much time on it as a novel would demand. If any of you are familiar with the Personality Plus books (I think that was their name) by LaHaye, you'll understand when I say I'm a melancholy personality to start, and immersing myself in darkness and tragedy would make me miserable to live with.
It makes sense, though. If readers are affected by what they read, how much more so the writers who invest so much of themselves into their characters and stories?
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The first story I wrote was a 6,000 word fiction short with the main characters as a mouse and a cat. I created the story as I drove down the road from Austin to Laredo. I was crying so hard at the end, I had to pull off the road. The first draft and several rewrites later found me in tears each time.
I have gotten so sentimental about this story, I have refused to do more rewrites even though it has many flaws and have refused to submit it even though some readers have said I should. Like the first dollar you earn, the first story is hard to spend.
Yes, I do get emotional about other stories I write to one degree or another. Different stories, different emotions, different degrees. Jerry
And I have a theory, I believe that though a writer may be in another galaxy, dealing with alien characters (whether figuratively or literally) but still many themes of the story encircle issues in teh writer's won life. In other words the story you just wrote was depressing because some part inside of you is depressed and not only can empathize with your main character, it's actually a very therapeutic way of venting.
Of course I haven't studied any of that out, but the above observation is based on only me as a test subject, still, I believe it is true.
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One theory....we are all crazy? Ok, I have to some degree experienced a similar attachment to my work. Overall, I think the more my writing progresses the more I find myself understanding the feelings of the main character. I must say that some of my stories tend to drift to the dark side, which is not me. I find it a challenge to write a main character I cannot really associate with, but come to terms with the personality and behaviours.
I guess I just want to see how far I can go and do it in a believable way. I can't place myself in the position of a character that I can't agree with. At what point is it skill over belief in the character? I don't know myself, but I am more fascinated by writing characters that I create. Ones that have qualities that are the same as me are more of a challenge.
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I'm with LDS, were all crazy. I sometimes get emotionally involved with my chars. I had to stop writing my last story because I couldn't handle the things I was going to send him through.
Posts: 1895 | Registered: Mar 2004
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