Hatrack River Writers Workshop: What's your addiction?

This is topic What's your addiction? in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by uberslacker2 (Member # 1397) on :

Hey. This isn't really about any of the literary things normally discussed (dialogue, character development..ya know stuff like that) it's actually just a wild idea. I thought of this question while writing an e-mail to my old english teacher.

Stephen King describes writing as the thing that keeps him going, and Roald Dahl says, "writing is to me what burbon is to a drunk." Do any of the rest of you feel like this? I know that sometimes I do, it's probably why I build fantasy worlds. Since I can't just up and run away from the world for a couple of days (I'm not about to walk and I can't drive legally so I'd probably get caught and sent home) I write in this fantasy world. If I'm really lucky my head gets completely into the story and I don't think about the outside world at all. It's sort of my drug so that I can forget about whatever crap I'm going through at that specific time.

Do any of you feel the same way? or something like that?

The Great Uberslacker

BTW, I also write because it's fun but that's just an added benefit.

Posted by chad_parish (Member # 1155) on :

Writing takes second place behind martial arts.

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

For whatever it's worth, when I'm in my "writing zone" then that's the addiction, but I have other "zones" (such as genealogy).

I tend to do a lot of things, some at the same time ("dove-tailing"?), but there are things, like writing and genealogy, that I will think about a lot even when I'm not in that particular "zone." What I am thinking about the most depends on what "zone" I was in most recently.

Moderating here at Hatrack, or any of the other things I do working with writers (you didn't think this was the only thing, did you?), can fill my thoughts, too.

Don't know if I'd call them addictions, though. Unless the thinking is an addiction of sorts. If I didn't have something to mull over as I go along, I'd probably go bonkers, so maybe the thinking is the addiction....

[This message has been edited by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (edited March 25, 2002).]

Posted by srhowen (Member # 462) on :

Salt--I think it must be salt---

And writing--but I eat salty food when I write. Then reading.

Shawn

Posted by JOHN (Member # 1343) on :

There are certain things in this world which belong together. Peanut better and jelly, beer and pizza, etc. Another such pairing, for me anyway, includes two of my addictions: smoking (cigarettes) and writing. I have so many ideas I can't help but to write a few of them down. While I'm writing I'll be stuck on a certain sentence or scene and I'l take a smoke break and run ideas through my head and things seem to come clearer. I think I could give up writing just as easily as cigarette smoking, which is to say never. Give me a a pack of Marlboro Lights and a blank page and I'll be content.

Yes, writing is an addiction.

JOHN!

Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :

I find First Person Shooters pretty addictive. On the other hand, I can quit basically whenever I want...like when I start losing

Seriously, I wouldn't say that I'm addicted to writing. Actually, just the opposite. I need impetus to actually write. I'm constantly thinking, except when I'm asleep (I would say I was addicted to sleeping, but I don't think that you can be addicted to something that is a universal need of all humans, all vertabrates, in fact), so I guess that I might be addicted to thinking, but I bet that more people think than show any signs of doing so (maybe not very interesting or original thoughts, but neurobiologists have correllated certain types of brain activity to cognition, and so far haven't found a lot of humans that don't at least display electrical activity consistent with cognitive activity).

So I guess I'm not addicted to anything. Including salt.

Posted by GZ (Member # 1374) on :

Chocolate – chocolate might be the closest thing I have to an addiction.

Getting lost in a book or in writing is good stuff, but I wouldn’t qualify it as an addiction. Too much rational control involved on my part.

Posted by Falken224 on :

Reading. I'm addicted to reading. I just picked up a book the other day by Lawrence Block. It was your standard hitman story . . . 'bout 400 pages or so. It was done 2 days later. Just read Phantom . . . 3 days. Ender's Shadow . . . day and a half.

Suffice it to say, my book habit is REALLY expensive. That's why I'm taking up writing . . . to PAY for my reading habits.

And I am NOT addicted to writing. I'm addicted to making up stories, and I'm quite good at it. Putting them down on paper . . . I HATE it! In fact, I can think of few things I hate more. Although, seeing the words once I'm DONE writing is rather nice.

But the reading . . . it's gonna kill my budget. *sigh*

Posted by chad_parish (Member # 1155) on :

Jerry Pournelle once said something more or less to this effect:

"Most writers hate writing. They like having written, but hate writing. I only know one writer who enjoys writing, and I'm worried about him."

Posted by Doc Brown (Member # 1118) on :

I enjoy writing, but I would not say that I am addicted to it.

I am, however, addicted to the Hatrack website.

Posted by srhowen (Member # 462) on :

Don't even go the Web route--since I discvoered the e-query--I am addicted to my mail box----there goes Shawn to check her e-mail--fifty times a day. "What do you mean the phone will be down for the next three hours?"

I HAVE TO CHECK MY MAIL!

And for me I have to write or I turn into the female dog from hell. Anyoneknow of WMS pill? (Writer's Mental Syndrom)

Shawn

Posted by FlyingCow (Member # 1198) on :

Unfortunately, I'm not addicted to writing. I am, however, addicted to the idea of writing. The planning, development, world-building, character development, "what if..." scenarios, etc...

I never stop thinking of new story ideas, or new ways to develop old story ideas... which is unfortunate, since I find it so hard to actually put all of that addictive thinking on paper. And the longer I wait to write it down, the more of a loggerjam backup of ideas I get in my brain.

... hopefully this addiction to planning is a gateway to addiction to writing.

Posted by ink1373 (Member # 1402) on :

I've seperated my life into five elements.

Reading, Writing, Drawing, Painting, and Music.

RWDPM

Posted by Thought (Member # 111) on :

Mmmmm, addictions. My biggest is Dr. Pepper. I am a DP fiend. As a total aside, DP is one of the only soft drinks out there that is not owned by either Pepsi or Coke. And it is also the only company that admits to using artificial flavoring (and I should hope so. No one is going to mistake DP for prune juice).

But as far as writing goes. Aye, its an addiction. A mistress and a tormentor. I love it, and yet there are few things that I dread as much. They reason for this being is that its all well and good once I get into the mind set of writing. But getting into that mindset, forcing my mind to concentrate on a story that, at the slightest hint of, my mind has already raced ahead chapters. And then of course there is the terror of when I must eventually stop... its like planting a tree. The roots just get established, then you uproot it again.

Then there is the terror that waits in the darkness. No matter how tired I am, how much I just want to sleep, as soon as my head hits the pillow my mind begins to overflow with ideas, demanding me to get up once again and tend to them.

So I am addicted to writing but it is a very cruel taskmaster.

Just a writing

Thought

Posted by JK (Member # 654) on :

Much like FlyingCow here. I'm addicted to creating background, as well as the story in my head. Actually writing the story down takes some effort. I thoroughly enjoy it when I start, but I'm incredibly lazy, so I have a thousand ways of putting it off. Including reading and computer games. The Gamecube, when it comes out over here in Old Blighty, will probably kill my writing for a couple of weeks, unless I get really disciplined.
JK