Emotional about your characters?

Sounds like a party!

 

Maybe?

How deep can you go answering 10 why questions?

Why do you write?

Because I like it.

Why?

Because I love my characters and their stories.

Why?

Because they express things I feel that I can’t say otherwise?

Why?

Because I’m trapped in a toxically masculine culture that oppressed my deeper emotions in favor of anger and stoicism.

If I keep going with that, I’ll start to get into some weird, Jungian shit. Yin and Yang. The nature of the social expression of gender. The craving to be seen. Whatever.

I’m willing to bet that any writer who plays “ten whys” will end up with wildly different answers that get into the core of who they are.

 

What good are handcuffs if we want her to write?

 

@Cave Troll has!

ETA: Very good point @Linz !!

 

I don't hate writing, but if I won the lottery I wouldn't do it anymore. Alternatively, if the market shifted and I found that I was no longer able to sell my books, I'd stop writing. I'm writing for money, really.

Now, what I write may be somewhat affected by my values. I agree that toxic masculinity is problematic so I don't write alphahole characters or books that glorify relationships I consider unhealthy, even though my sales might improve if I did. And I want to be intellectually challenged by what I write, so I try to avoid being too formulaic and I follow rules of quality that are important to my sense of self-respect. I'm not completely mercenary about it.

But at the very root of it all? I don't think I'm expressing any deep truths about myself through my writing. I don't find it liberating or emotionally necessary. It's just an interesting way to make money.



ETA: Sorry - I didn't follow the format!

Why do I write?

So I can sell the books and make money.

Why?

Money is a useful tool and writing is a relatively painless way to earn it.

Why? (I'll assume the useful tool part is clear and focus on the second half)

I find I can relatively easily write books that sell and I like the flexibility of the writing lifestyle.

Why (Again, two branches in the why tree...)
Branch one (relatively easily...) - I guess I've internalized a lot of the writing that I've read over the years and am able to translate that into writing that others want to read.

Branch two (writing lifestyle) - I'm a strong introvert and find most jobs that deal with people to be exhausting. My formal education has only really prepared me for jobs that deal with people. I'd like to find something more suited to an introvert. Writing fits the bill.

I don't know - I guess I could keep going, but the branches are getting a bit confusing and I don't think any of them are leading me anywhere near "passion"... at least, not passion for writing. Passion for being left alone to do my own thing? Maybe.

 

Which kind, regular or leather?

 

I am reasonably sure that the desire to get paid leads many people to do a great job at whatever they do. You could also ask why you care about money, or if doing a good job writing has any other value to you than the cash value of the product, why you care about appearing competent, yadda yadda.

Edit: I don't mean for you to answer those questions in the forum (though it would be interesting). I'm just trying to illustrate that the path to doing a good job can be motivated by more than one thing at a time, or by different things for different people.

Edit 2: Like if you had four people building a bridge--one who thinks the bridge design is an artistic expression of his soul, one who cares about crafting the bridge well because displaying his competence gives him social standing, one that cares about getting it done in a way that will endure because his real passion is driving his cart to the market, and one that needs a good reputation to continue to get jobs building bridges because he needs the money for his family--it wouldn't surprise anyone if all four people worked equally hard and well on the bridge.

 

I love you!

 

Whereas my therapist has largely abandoned the effort to get at my feelings directly, and our sessions almost always drift to the novel.

 

On a somewhat related note - I find that my passion-less self has to use some self-discipline in order to sit down and get the writing done. I assume that for all the passionate folks out there, the discipline isn't necessary, since they're so in love with their writing and their characters and so obsessed with it all.

But then... where the hell are the books? Why do so many writers on this forum talk about their characters as if they've got only one set, even though they've been writing for years? What's getting in the way of getting the books finished and moving on to the next story? Are people passionate about writing, or just about daydreaming?

 

Um... I'm having bloody tea parties with the vampires running around in my head....

 

I did an ETA to the original post that followed your "why" format more closely. Still didn't get anywhere near ten iterations before I got lost in the weeds, though!

 

Shhhhhhhhh.

I knew we could count on you, Cave Troll.

 

sweet.

Also, I can't imagine someone getting through all ten. They'd have to be some kind of wizard.

 

I don't believe there is just black and white. If we lived in that world where there was no gray inbtween. Maybe there is to much a & z here, where's the rest of the alphabet? I know it exists I'm using the other missing letters for this conversation to write this post. ️‍

 

And with enough rope a bit of Shibari.

All modern computers have the option to convert speech into
commands and text, so one does not need hands to write,
technically speaking.

 

There may not be JUST black and and white, but that doesn't mean there's NO black and white, right?

Like, to use the asexuality example, there are people on one end of the spectrum who are completely obsessed with sex and can't think about anything else, and there are people on the other end of the spectrum who have no interest in sex. The fact that there are lots of people between them on the spectrum doesn't mean we shouldn't believe people who tell us they're at one extreme or another.


ETA: And to bring it back to the "passion" discussion, my (and the dictionary's) definition of passion puts it pretty far to one end of the spectrum. So saying that everyone who writes must be passionate about writing is kind of like saying that everyone who has sex must be a sex-addict. "Why would you have sex if you aren't addicted to it? People who aren't sex addicts just don't have sex at all." Or, alternatively: "People who aren't sex addicts are no good at sex. I can't offer any evidence to support this argument, but I have a good imagination and I can't imagine anyone being good at sex without being a sex addict, so it must be impossible."

 

Trust you to have the answer to that, too!

 

Me? Daydreaming. All my life (at least, I can remember doing this while staring out the bus window on the way to grade school) I’ve daydreamed high emotion scenes. But that’s very different from assembling a coherent narrative that will make sense to someone else—and very different from producing those scenes in words instead of head-pictures.

It appears that the key for me may be to (1) force the words, (2) abandon coherence, (3) force all the scenes to be about the same characters until (4) I have a big enough mishmash of scenes to motivate me to start making paths and bridges and a tour guide for other people to view those scenes.

 

And you've somewhere picked up the skills to be really good at the scene-writing aspect of things, which has got to make things easier for you (although I expect it doesn't always feel that way!). At least, it makes it easier for you to produce something worth reading... maybe it doesn't make it easier for you to produce mass words.

And I don't mean to diminish the value of daydreaming - I'm a big daydreamer myself. I just think it's important to distinguish between daydreaming and actually writing, if we're talking about writing as a passion.

 

I feel more driven than passionate about my writing, especially as I move from draft to draft. First novel, first draft was mostly passion and half that story was complete crap. Novel#2, first draft was the simple drive to get it written down. Now (or reasonably soon anyway) I can start crafting it into a good story. At the end of the drive, I see a published novel, and if I run out of gas before then, I'll continue on foot.

I draw on my experience of emotions to make my characters feel, but I don't necessarily feel for them. What stirs me in my own writing -- and other's writing too -- is what relates to my own emotional experience and sometimes, it doesn't have much to do at all with the actual scene.

 

There is one character in my book that I know I have to kill in order to really bring the story to life, but.... I am dreading it. I know it would be great, but I can't ... I love this dude too much. Also, I think that a lot of his mannerisms and style is inspired from my own personality, so it would be like killing myself too lol... but I know I gotta do it.

Also, I feel for my characters that have burdened pasts and they finally reveal it. Even though I know I'm the one making it up. When I read it back, I can always feel the pain, no matter fabricated it is.

 

Very well, I stand corrected. . I shouldn't tell you about my weekly poker games with my characters.

Agreed, there are a lot of factors and there is no one size fits all...

 

The answer to that is simple - not everyone who writes, does so with the aim of getting published. Doesn't mean what they write, doesn't get finished - just means that money isn't a motivator to them. I'm considering the possibility of sending my novel(s) for publishing, but it's not the be all and end all if I don't - it's not the reason behind my writing.

Why do I write?
Because I've always been passionate about writing and enjoy watching my ideas come to "life" on the page.

Why?
I'm passionate about writing because I believe I'm reasonably good at it, and happen to be better at writing than I am at conversing face-to-face. For example, I'm better at writing a letter than I am arguing my point or standing up for myself in person.

I enjoy watching my ideas coming to life on a page because it often blows my mind that what I'm reading is something that I wrote.

Why?
Because I'm not very good at thinking on my feet, as is often needed in a discussion/argument. It takes me time to formulate my thoughts in a coherent sense. Writing gives me all the time I need.

Why?
Because I'm socially awkward/social phobic, and I can edit/delete/rewrite until it gets my view across perfectly. Writing a novel is a sort of extension to that.

Why?
Err Ask a psychologist/psychiatrist.

 

First, I absolutely agree and second this.




Okay, I'll play along.

ETA Why?

Because there is a story inside @honey hatter's head i need to read, a story inside @Cave Troll 's head I need to read, a story inside @Laurin Kelly 's head I need to read, and maybe, just maybe some day, they might like to read mine. (Also, many other people here, with a few exceptions)

1. Why do you write?

It is part of my nature and being to write, since single digits in age when I drew my stories in the form of crude comics. One of my earliest stories was a bout a killer who killed a girl for rejecting him, and for some odd reason her father didn't' give two shits. (Hey I was a kiddo). By the Double Digits my friends and I role played in the back yard, hunting dragons and fighting bandits with me orchestrating the story as we went.

2. Why?

My creativity is not a faucet that can be turned off. It is not motivated by monetary gain, it just is. It just works. Just does what it does, whether I want to write or not.

3. Why?

I have a world inside my head, it is hurting me, and I must write to release it. People smiling at me, waiting, waiting for me to tell this world about their lives and the events that shaped their worlds the realm of imagination.

4. Why?

For the love of the written word.. Books are important to me, with Dune being my favorite book series.


5. Why?

I enjoy creating, worlds, people, telling their stories as an outside observer to an alien world within my own head.

ETA Why?

Because there are of vast amount of untapped universes, metaphoric of course, within our brains that needs to come out out. And I am doing my part


6. Why?

It is a passion I have deep inside, frighten of the thing I've become, not a 1000 men or more will ever do, I kiss the rains down in Africa, Going to do the things we never did.

ETA Why?

Because the body of written works is a hungry Beast that always needs to be fed, ever-expanding. Like the god emperor of humanity, the body of of written works requires the souls and Passions of the creative writers, so that it may live for generations to come always feasting on the minds of new writers

7. Why?

Because the outside world does not appeal to me, as an introvert, I much prefer the world within, where things are interesting and people use logic and reason over emotions.

8. Why?

Money, Nah just kidding.... Because I can

ETA Why?

Because it was a silly question brought up in this form to answer, and I'm answering it. Because, why not

9. Why?

Because, I have two hands... one for writing and the other for sipping down coffee.

0. Why?

Just Cause.....


Why?

Her Name is Kristol.

Why?

His Name is Samuel

Why?

His name is Richard

Why?

Her name is Catherine

Why?

His name is Samuel-9 (not related to Samuel)

Why?

His name is Edward, and his wife, Anna.

Why?

Her name is Rafilia and her husband is Ferdinand

Why?

Because of the approx. 30+ people who live in my head, waiting for their stories to be told.

Why?

Because..... Why are you asking me these silly why questions.