Writing is a drug. Embrace it!

[BeccaPrice]

I never thought of it that way, but yes, I do sometimes get an endorphin rush when the words are just coming... oddly, I never get that from exercising no matter how hard I work out - have never gotten the runner's high. I guess I'll just have to make do with the writer's high instead.

[James_Wilde]

Hm! Seems I'm in good company. In the foreword of both my books to date is the warning that "writing should carry a government health warning".

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

I like how Stephen King put it in his book, "I write because I can't not write."

Weird... in my case, it's actually very easy to think up stories, but very hard to write them. I mean... I can go to bed, and lie awake for two hours. I think up a scene in a story (I've got one stuck in my head most of the time) that's so large that it'd probably take about 25 or even more pages to write out fully, including dialogs and descriptions.

When falling asleep, I can dream up an extra 25 pages or so, and actually remember almost everything the day after.

And then I write it down only very rarely.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Weird... in my case, it's actually very easy to think up stories, but very hard to write them. I mean... I can go to bed, and lie awake for two hours. I think up a scene in a story (I've got one stuck in my head most of the time) that's so large that it'd probably take about 25 or even more pages to write out fully, including dialogs and descriptions.

When falling asleep, I can dream up an extra 25 pages or so, and actually remember almost everything the day after.

And then I write it down only very rarely.

Good for you Kat!
I easily come up with titles, ideas, plot devices, situations, sometimes scenarios but have great difficulty translating that into a working story.

I'm not understanding the connection of your response to the quoted passage about King though???

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Good for you Kat!
I easily come up with titles, ideas, plot devices, situations, sometimes scenarios but have great difficulty translating that into a working story.

I'm not understanding the connection of your response to the quoted passage about King though???

King says he writes, because he "can't not write". (He has to write because he must.)

This is the case with many people, at least, they say so themselves. They claim that they feel they MUST write, even though they have no story, people who feel they want to compose music but can't think up a tune, and so on.

With me, it's just the other way around. I'm always walking around with some story in my head, often even several scenes at once, so big that they'd only need a few connections here and there to form a large part of a novel.

Still, I can't write it.

Whenever I start, and then read back over it, it's never as good as it was when I first thought it up and think: "Who'd want to read that?" So, I either don't even write it, or if I do, I don't finish it, or I trash what I've done. I fear to think what would have happen if I ever DID write everything I thought up. To me, it often seems "simple fantasy stuff", but to others, it may be (might have been, would be, could be....) more.

Maybe I'm just lazy. What I'd really want? To hold my head above a hard drive (tilted to the left), give a few good slaps on my right ear, and have the story drop onto the drive complete, as I thought it up the day before.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

King says he writes, because he "can't not write". (He has to write because he must.)

..... they MUST write, even though they have no story, .....

I'm always walking around with some story in my head,....
Still, I can't write it.

Whenever I start, and then read back over it, it's never as good as it was when I first thought it up and think: "Who'd want to read that?".....

Ah, I see what you're getting at. I don't take Kings isolated statement to mean that at all (given the broader context of what I know about his method). He starts with a scenario and sketchy characters which he then begins writing with and fleshes out. (as I understand it he doesn't typically have a story in mind, but just follows what happens -- and very likely does tons of editing/rearranging/etc). So in some ways he just writes, but not without a scenario and characters which drive the story for him.

Sounds like you are not atypical. My thoughts, ideas, scenes never come out as I initially see them in my head either and I know most writers (particularly at first) have the same issue.

The devil editor can kill a story before it starts if you let it.

I'm admittedly not so good at fiction but am trying to 'just write' and stuff the editor in a box til I'm ready to edit or revise and then it gets even tricker switching back and forth....at least for me.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Sounds like you are not atypical. My thoughts, ideas, scenes never come out as I initially see them in my head either and I know most writers (particularly at first) have the same issue.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I normally think in images, not words.

If you say something very simple to me:

"So yesterday, the steak slipped from my plate onto the ground. Before I could do anything, the dog had it and was off with it through the back door."

I actually "see" the steak slipping, dropping to the ground, the dog grabbing it, and crashing through the back door into the yard.

When assisting people with computers, I never had to remember the locations o buttons and menu's and such. I just remembered "screenshots", and could "use" the program in my head while explaining.

It's the same with regard to thinking up stories. I "see" characters and surroundings. If I'd describe the characters and surroundings the way I "see" them, everybody would be asleep before finishing a chapter.

So, IF (rarely) I write something, it's just part of what I actually "saw", so it's not good enough. It feels as the writing is some sort of summary.

Maybe this is the reason why I could enjoy myself immensely with table top RPG's when I was younger, while many other children I knew couldn't.