I've been beavering away at two different stories that are funny at times and quite poignant others, and I am doing an extensive scriptural study along with exhaustive notes and am feeling quite drained.
Both stories were meant to be dramas with postively comical moments in them and now I find it quite difficult to keep them that way, at times breaking out in tears, and thunder for no real reason. My God, I thought my drama days were long over!
Come on, can writing really be that draining or am a simply a selfish wimp?
Much peace
Gwendolyn
Comments
Done right
Done right, writing is some of the hardest work there is. Six pages in six hours or so is about as draining as an eight-hour shift at some moderate physical job like retail clerk, housework or lawn care, physically, and is much more draining mentally and emotionally. That's about my limit, though I have put in a few 3000 or 5000 word days. A few of those strung in a row and I'm ready for a weekend.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
I underestimated the cost.
Now I am beginning to understand that writing is not a task to be taken on lightly. My earlier work seemed easier because through much of it I was constantly emoting anyhow. Now that life is much more settled, it costs more to write emotional scenes, and perhaps I am better at it.
Much peace
Gwendolyn
The last few days
writing Bike has been some of the hardest work I've done, and I can usually knock it out faster than most - I have managed 10,000 words in a day once, but none of it as intense as Bike has been recently.
Angharad
Angharad
Yes, you do seem quite prolific Angharad
I have often wondered how you can consistently write so much almost every single day, but had thought that you were in a tough field of employ so had much tension to rid yourself of.
I think that you do a jolly good job of it.
Much peace
Gwendolyn
Yes it is.
Writing is work, even if you like doing it.
There are times when I've finished some particularly intense scene, that I just have to stop, lean back, and take a few breaths.
Maggie
Developing a phlebitis while writing.
Yes, well I do know some of what you mean. I have been soldering away for the last several days but finally had to go on a bit of a walk about today when my legs started hurting. Wouldn't really care to develop blood clots in my legs from sitting.
Much peace
Gwendolyn
PS, when are you going to churn out another of your delightful Medieval Yarns?
Yep
Writing's a bitch, especially when other stuff is crowding in to cause distraction, (or destruction!).
When the block just sits in your head refusing to let ideas flow, I have to step back from the keyboard sometimes for days at a time and try some different therapy like cycling and sometimes, even that doesn't work.
Bev.
XZXX
Growing Old Disgracefully
I must be like a chicken or rodent.
I have felt dreadfully blocked since I left Ohio, though have managed to excrete some really awful prose this summer. Interestingly, one of those formula tales did better than anything I have ever written. How do you explain that?
Much peace
Gwendolyn
Definitely Gwen:)
Writing can be so hard but at the same time really rewarding when you actually get something you're holding inside that needed out. There's also part of that human need to create art. I think the need to write and create feelings in your writing is very akin to writing music or playing a song to move others or to try to.
*Big Hugs*
Bailey.
Bailey Summers
The hardest work there is.
Writing often uses your own blood to make the words appear. Yeah, it can be really hard and take a lot out of you.
Denise is working on her next story which is mostly about bullying and she is really struggling. I am doing my best to support and help her, but she has commented on more than one occasion that it is really draining her.
So don't feel badly if you are drained. Rest and nurture your muse and you'll be back at the keyboard pouring out your soul. That's what authors do.
Janet
Mistress of the Guild of Evil [Strawberry] Blonde Proofreaders
To be or not to be... ask Schrodinger's cat.
Janet
Mistress of the Guild of Evil [Strawberry] Blonde Proofreaders
To be or not to be... ask Schrodinger's cat.
Perhaps sometimes it's the process?
...but often it's because of the characters and what they go through. If you have a man or a woman in your story who has lost a loved one or is going through an ordeal and you don't care enough to cry? It will come through as being detached and dispassionate, and it will be harder for we as readers to care. But if your girl loses her sister or your guy loses his gender, and they weep and anguish over the loss or change, it's because you yourself likely wept along with them, because you cared before we did. I know from reading your work that you do care; that you treasure your 'children' and so do we.
Dio vi benedica tutti
Con grande amore e di affetto
Andrea Lena
Love, Andrea Lena
Writing? Draining? Naaaw.
No way! I mean, like, writing is just simply putting words on a page or a screen, all you really gotta do is move your hands about the keyboard and type!
OK, seriousness time. I think that if you aren't finding yourself drained after a writing session, you're probably not writing a very convincing tale. As other commentators have mentioned, a writer puts themselves into their story. A part of your soul is embedded into every single word you put into your story. Readers pick up on that just as surely as they do the words themselves. If you aren't putting parts of your very soul into every word you write, readers will pick up on that too. Put enough bits of your soul on paper/screen, and after a while, you need a break!
Abigail Drew.
Abigail Drew.
Persuasion and Anne, Oh the passion of it.
Thank you all for your kind replies. I am beginning to see the truth of it. Though I never thought I would wear the shoe on the other foot. I watched the movie "Persuasion" the other night and so identified with Anne. I am just like her and it was like seeing myself on screen. So, yes, I now see that if I am diligent, then it will cost me something, or a lot.
Much peace
Gwendolyn
Famous quote
“Writing is easy,†said Red Smith. “You just sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.†:)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Depends
Sometimes writing a story is simple and the words flow with only the effort to keep up with your thoughts. Sometimes writing is like pulling teeth: your own. The idea is there, but the words don't come or the idea is lost or you can't say it right. Things get in the way such as emotions. Maybe the character tells you that ain't the way it happened.
Yes, I often let the characters tell me the story. Believe me, it helps.
hugs
shalimar