I love everything about my main fictional world. Everything from the clothes that keep changing inside my head, to the different architecture, space vessels, political systems, planets, worlds, universes. I obsess over it all, to the point where I sometimes have trouble reading other works. When I do read other works, especially books or longer stories, I tend to think about what would happen in my own universe, how my universe would respond to certain events. Or how my characters would react to certain situations. In the past few years, as my universe has evolved, my ability to take in other worlds has devolved... Does anyone have the same problem? How do you deal with your obsession? Do you embrace it? Or try to repress it so that you can take on new themes and ideas? Maybe my creative me is a narcissist...
Dude, don't worry about it! The mark of being-a-narcissist is probably that you'd never even consider the possibility of being one in the first place. Allowing yourself that kind of healthy obsession leads to a much greater depth and richness of experience while reading, than if you had simply held everything back. Obsession over a particular thing (in equal measure to its counterpart of allowing distance/perspective/time) creates a great opportunity to spot links that you wouldn't normally have seen/ideas that you wouldn't have come up with before. I say, as long as you're not neglecting bills, taxes, food, or your dog, go for it! The world's always in great need of such people, whether they work on fiction, art, science, mathematics, or gardening.
I think we all write the kind of stuff we most like to read. When I read one of my own stories I get immersed all over again in the excitement of the inspiration and the feeling of being in the flow state while writing it (if I managed to achieve that). And though I haven't reached my optimal skill levels yet as far as story structure and grammar and all that ephemera, I see past all the mistakes to the story I was trying to write. You can't do that while reading somebody else's story. Well, to an extent I guess you can—I've sometimes felt like there's a really great story there but the author just missed it, but I keep on reading because I can see that perfect story hiding there. But it's a lot easier to do that with my own work. Don't misunderstand me, I'm also very aware of all the mistakes and clumsiness (once I see them). But I can also see the story as it exists in the inner world of my imagination. I wish I could wrestle that out and pin it down on paper directly. Instead we have to approximate it as well as we can using actual words and sentences. The inner vision is like a dream that's developed little by little as we write, beginning from just a seed idea. I wish there were a way to just get the ideas directly into someone else's head without needing to translate it through some physical medium first.
Very interesting. I've sometimes had similar thoughts. If only I could properly visualize everything from the mental image and transmitt my story directly into somebody elses head. Then they might appreciate it as much as I do. I agree with you, capturing the soul of your story can sometimes be difficult. You have your ideas and concepts in your head, and then when you translate them to words on paper, they sometimes just don't reflect what was in your mind.
Part of the problem is that as a writer, you analyze other people's stories far more than you otherwise would. This makes it harder to let go and enjoy.
That bothered me at first but it doesn't any more. I compare it to watching stage magic, and liking it so much that you decided to become one--and now when you see a magician perform, you have this layer of understanding that deepens the meaning of what you see. and when a magician does something to surprise you, it's even more awesome than it was before you knew how magic worked.
Seems to me that you make no distinction between your work and your own life. I guess many of us have something that could be called obssesion. To avoid falling in that state, I sometimes just think: Hey, that is not the only thing that matters. Then, I try to really believe that. Many times it works for me. If I get to the point in which only one thing matters in my life, I think that I would be lost. (This is just a personal opinion, ok?)
I do obsess. I often think my work has more value than my life. That if I truly capture everything that is inside my mind and release it on paper, not just my fictional work, but my more real work as well, then it can help unite people and improve the future. Perhaps that is vain and maybe I suffer from grandeur, thinking my work may have such an impact. In all reality, I am a novice and my mind falters me, my chances of success are slim. Still, there is that bit of madness called hope inside me.
I guess I’m kind of obsessed with my work? Not in a “It’s the best thing since sliced bread” way, but in a “These characters I’ve written live in my head rent-free and I talk about them like they’re real people.” I have strong reactions to my own work. I try to embrace it, since I know writing and my characters are a special interest of mine, and that’s not changing any time soon. Whenever I consume new media, I try to see how it can apply to my work to make it better.
Exactly! Like what do you mean most people aside from writers don’t see a thing and find some way to connect it back to their work? Looking at Sanrio characters? “Huh, I think Katsumi’s favorites would be My Melody and Kuromi.” Learning about the word “garrote”? “That’s how Katsumi kills people.” Shopping at the grocery store and I see tonkatsu ramen on the shelves? “Katsumi’s grandparents cook that often, and Katsumi views it as a comfort food as a result.” It’s not that odd from a writer’s perspective in retrospect, but probably is for non-writers.
I also draw and paint, and I must say doing creative work is more fulfilling and rewarding than anything else (except for actual human interaction of course). It's much faster and easier to do a drawing or a painting than to write a story, but I find it far more deeply engaging to create a world—a story universe—and populate it with living characters who interact in powerful emotional ways. That goes far deeper than what you can do in a drawing or a painting. Those are like individual snapshots of a moment in that world, but a story is an entire huge chunk of life in it that engages all the senses and evokes lots of emotions and ideas.