Comments | siriusaboutsev: Writing, creating, ideas.

siriusaboutsev

Writing, creating, ideas.

Feb 27, 2007 17:06

I've never been able to understand it when people talk about writing and say thing like, "explore the character" or "main ideas" or "interpretation." I don't understand because I don't write that way. I never write for any particular reason: like, "well, I really like such-and-such character, so I wanted to get further into his head, understand the ( Read more... )

writing

Comments 8

liar_xx February 27 2007, 23:54:03 UTC

And I always thought that was okay, but is it?

Of course it is.
Everyone writes in different ways, and with different things in mind.

I, for one, just tend to write things because I think a certain scenario would be fun, or because I have ideas that I want - or rather need - to get out. I guess that's similar to your style.

I get bored of it about half-way through and give up. This is one of the reasons why I don't write chaptered things.

Haha... and this is probably why I shouldn't write chaptered things.
But I do.
And I leave gaps of several months between chapters... XD

siriusaboutsev March 1 2007, 05:17:43 UTC

Everyone writes in different ways, and with different things in mind.

Well that's just it. I DONT have anything in mind when I'm writing.

And I leave gaps of several months between chapters... XD

WHOLE MONTHS? *giggles* That should make for awkward reading...unless you are able to somehow pull it off. And yeah, I think you're that capable. : )

liar_xx March 1 2007, 12:46:38 UTC

I'm pretty sure that's valid too. I guess it depends on what the end result it like XP
And with regards to the endings, I have a friend who has a similar attitude. He plans things, but when he knows how it ends too clearly he'll lose interest.
Oftentimes writing is a sort of
'voyage of discovery' type thing... it's exciting to see what your characters are going to do, and to race onward in the story so you can find out the ending.
...Or maybe I'm just weird like that.
(Though I must admit, sometimes I write the ending first :/)

Shhh.
I just get distracted by other things XP
I'm like that... I'll be really really into something one minute, then I'll find something else and get totally into that. Rinse and repeat.
I mean, I've had a big chunk of that YGO multichaptered thing of mine sitting around in a notebook for weeks, but I just haven't been bothered to type it up because first I got caught up in syntheticduel, and then I've been making fanmixes (which I have yet to post) >_>

moonymonster February 28 2007, 01:29:17 UTC

And I always thought that was okay, but is it?Well, that depends on your point of view. My CW teachers would say that yes, writing needs to be guided or have a point and thought out to make the story better, but that's their way of working. As long as yours works for you, and you write good fiction in this way, then that's the way you write. I think what's more a problem is how you don't write endings if you know them already. If you write like that professionally, you'll never get anything done! I'd practice ending chapter stories even if I already knew the ending just so that you teach yourself how. You don't need to publish the results--hell, since your practicing, you may not even WANT to--but I'd still suggest doing it, just because it'll help you in your future (if you want to be a professional writer ( ... )

siriusaboutsev March 1 2007, 05:15:53 UTC

My CW teachers would say that yes, writing needs to be guided or have a point and thought out to make the story better...

My CW teacher used to say the same thing (or rather, I'm sure she still says it, only I'm not there to hear it *laugh*). She always told us that there had to be a point to the story, a reason you were writing it. And I guess maybe I should have asked her about this, but I didn't (or maybe I did, I just don't remember what she said about it). Mostly, when I write, it just sort of happens. But does that necessarily make me a bad writer? As my friend Rimbo down there put it, an ameteurAnd you've brought up one of the reasons why I even posted this rantishtypething in the first place. Yes, I did plan to write professionally, at one point in my life. But now, I'm not so sure. Not just because of my issues with endings, but because of my issues with deadlines and because I'm afraid that if it's work, it will no longer be fun ( ... )

moonymonster March 2 2007, 16:47:15 UTC

But does that necessarily make me a bad writer?

I don't think so. I think that's just the way you work...especially if you don't want to make it your job (just like how I love drawing and painting, but I don't want to make a career out of it). I find deadlines annoying, mostly (heh, that's why I tend to actually write things the night before) and I know when I had them for fanfiction it totally took the fun out of it...so I understand the work/fun thing.

Then again, that doesn't necessarily give the story a reason to be, just me a reason to write. Bah humbug! The story's reason to be is so you can get that damn plot in your head out so it'll leave you alone! Or at least that's mine half the time *snicker*. But seriously...like I said, it seems for you writing is how art is for me: I enjoy doing it and it helps me relax, but I don't bother with the whole "I have to get this done by this time or else I'm screwed" or "I want to make this my job" because I'm doing it for fun. (Although I have to admit, it's more fun when you hang up ( ... )

nymphesauvage March 1 2007, 04:53:28 UTC

(C'est Rimbo, on her excellent Larxene RP journal. This is kind of incoherent because I'm not sleeping well and a bit ill, mille pardons.)

Me, I can't ever write a story unless I know the ending. I don't know why, it's just one of those neurotic writerly quirks that define our calling. Just never works out right otherwise. Even with RPing I have to have some idea of how the arc's going to end or at very least how the character's going to get bumped off eventually. (Oh, Cerise. I have the best death for you. Poor Benoit!) I wish I knew why. I don't feel that it focuses me or helps me pace a story or anything like that.

But for you I'm going to try to analyze it: as a writer, my forte is endings. So, with any project, if I don't come up with the ending within the first few hours or days of contemplation, there probably weren't that many good ideas coming down the pike at all. That's how I may have come to associate having an ending early on with a quality project.

As for your main point. Sometimes I say, "Okay, I've got to have this ( ... )

siriusaboutsev March 1 2007, 05:06:56 UTC

Well, but see, I don't see it at all. I can go back and reread stuff I've written in the past, over and over again (and I have), but it still has no meaning or purpose. I just wrote it to get it out there. Because I felt like it. And one of the things that really bothers me about this is that when I don't feel like it, I don't write. Which is what's been happening to me in the past year or so. I haven't felt like writing so I haven't, and I'm terrified that any amount of skill at the art that I've acquired, will just disappear the longer I go without writing. And what if I give it up altogether? What if, gradually, I stop writing at all? I mean, it's not that I lack ideas or that I've stopped thinking about it... *sigh* Maybe it's just me?

As for the ending, what's the point of writing it if you already know what it is? WHY write it ( ... )