| Author | Message | ||
     Mbfg (Mbfg) Username: Mbfg Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 92.4.194.146 |
For the first time since I first started wrestling words onto paper and trying to be famous I am not writing. The reason is that I am reading for, and constructing, "The Monster Book For Girls". Not writing is an odd exeprience. It is such a huge part of my life, and I feel slightly bereft. I am excited about the book of course, editing is also a new experience and I'm enjoying it immensely. I may well be a little light on the fiction side in the summer as well as I might have an electrical level 1 text book to write for Heinneman and also some more technical stuff for another publisher. Fingers crossed because that would mean real money. I wrote two chapters for a similar book last year but the publisher decided not to use them, but they still paid me! Now that is a rejection to remember  Anyway, do you write all the time or in bursts of mad creativity interspersed with non-writing times or are you a guilt-driven, disciplined, some-words-everyday-day-whether-you-feel-like-it-or-not kind of scrivener like me? Cheers Terry | ||
| Stephen Theaker (Stephen_theaker) Username: Stephen_theaker Registered: 12-2009 Posted From: 92.232.184.206 |
I'm happy to leave all my fiction writing to Nanowrimo. No one would thank me for writing any more! | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.122.108.107 |
Terry, it occurred to me recently that I feel writing is a transcendent experience. I feel it's a bit mystical. I'd do it if publishing didn't exist, if no-one read any of it. I'm lazy, though, and often scared to start doing it, and the conditions have to be just right (a busy cafe is ok, a house with one of my kids in it is not, for instance). I need either silence or anonymous bustle. I often need to have an inspiring, well-written book near me, something to look through for inspiration (not ideas, just clues). | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
I consider myself to be only an occasional writer, but I guess when I think about the kinds of writing I have to do for work too - not just creative writing - then I do tend to write almost every day. However, I go through phases when I can't seem to summon up the energy/enthusiasm to write - and recently I've been going through one of those phases. I used to always want to be a professional published author, but in recent years I've come to realise that I wouldn't like having a publisher's deadline looming over me for a large piece of work like a novel. I reckon feeling like I *had* to write would stifle any creativity I have. To add another question to yours, Terry, if I may - do those of you writing to a publisher's deadline feel like this, or does it not affect your creativity/desire to write? | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 178.118.79.219 |
I reckon feeling like I *had* to write would stifle any creativity I have. Well, I wrote my first and only (Dutch-language and as yet still unpublished) novel under pressure, i.e. to win a literary prize. I had slightly less than a year and that suited me fine. The goal I set myself was to write at least 500 words a day and it worked. To have that deadline there looming in front of me was a major incitation to get down to it and work. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
Caroline - deadlines help me a lot. They force me to right even when I don't feel like it. They've also helped to make me much more disciplined - incredibly so, if I'm honest. My first novel (no deadline at the time) took me two years to write, whereas my current one (deadline this Friday) took me seven months (it was hard work, but very gratifying). | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
I don't find writing a particularly mystical or magical experience, either. To me, it's more like making a cabinet or putting up some nice shelves. There's a certain order, a way of constructing the thing, and its a very satisfying experience to struggle through the process andf then have the finished product in front of you. The secret is to put all the right bits in the right place and make sure you don't lose any of the screws.  | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.169.43.224 |
I don't find writing a particularly mystical or magical experience, ============== Although it can be, I suggest. The writing of LOST, for example, and King's huge DARK TOWER series of novels I sense are not pre-planned but absorb a certain amount of binding 'power' from who knows what forces out there. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.68 |
Every day, me - even Christmas and my birthday. If we go on holiday or to a convention the work in progress goes too. Whenever I can be I'm at my desk by dawn (or if not, composing the first sentences in my head). | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
I don't find writing a particularly mystical or magical experience, either. To me, it's more like making a cabinet or putting up some nice shelves. There's a certain order, a way of constructing the thing, and its a very satisfying experience to struggle through the process andf then have the finished product in front of you. The secret is to put all the right bits in the right place and make sure you don't lose any of the screws Exactly what I said in my introduction to Wicked Delights - you've finally started reading it, haven't you Zed? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
Not yet, old chap - it is getting closer to the top of the absurdly tall pile, though.  | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
Is it taller than you? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
What isn't? | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.26.213.180 |
A giraffe asleep in bed is taller than Zed. |