Emotional about your characters?

Can you please link to one of your published works, so we can check it out.

Also since you don't care can I borrow some of your characters, since you don't care! And have no passion for writing, and it's just a job.

 

Not confusing anything. I work hard and write a lot. This is what I want to do and sometimes I'm good at it. But what I'm saying is it really doesn't matter how emotionally invested you are in writing or your story. I still believe all that passion you guys are feeling could be somewhat of a distraction during the writing process as I know it would be for me.

 

Absolutely not!!! Really, you need to see my writing to know if my points are valid? I've tried to clearly state that my points are based on my experiences and what is true for me. Very few people on here know my true identity and some of them have read both my published and non published works. I'm no super success, but I have been known to run with the big dogs. Just saying I shouldn't have to give up being anonymous on this site to participate in discussions. I really don't understand being called out like this and asked to prove myself and reveal who I am. No one has to listen to me who doesn't want to. Things like this happening in a forum really rub me the wrong way.

 

So you are passionate about what you do and what you write.

Again you are confusing passionate with emotional you have to care about what you do, be passionate about it or just go fucking do something else.

That's not the same as breaking down crying in a meeting with publicist about a scene where a dog dies,

You're just proving that you're passionate about your stuff, don't confuse that with emotional

 

Eh... I'd bet that actors, singers, etc., do delve into emotional resources for their work. And I'd bet that many, many writers do as well.

I wouldn't cry at work, but my work would benefit, not suffer, from a feeling of enthusiasm and excitement. Work, IMO, does not stem entirely or necessarily even primarily from calm analytic logic. There are, in fact, studies of people who, due to brain damage, can't feel emotion, and those people are desperately hampered in the most basic of decision making. Emotion appears to be what drives us.

(Cite? I can't find the actual layman's language article that I once read, but a hurried Google gives me this: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15134841 )

Now, that's sideways from your point, I realize. Feeling enthusiasm and excitement about a story is not the same as feeling a character's, say, desperate grief at some Horrible Thing. I'm just saying that emotion is not inherently bad for thinking and focus. While emotion isn't necessarily driving the car, it's a very important advisor.

Purely anecdotally, I know that my focus, at least, is much better when my writing is fairly heavily driven by emotion. In fact, a conscious and deliberate scheme for driving my writing by emotion is the only reason that I'm making progress on my writing goals. And I believe that the writing itself (MY writing; not saying this is general) is better when a scene is driven by a good slug of emotion, though without a panel of neutral judges hanging out in my living room ready to evaluate my writing, there's no proving that.

I have a vague fuzzy theory that deliberately provoking emotion is provoking dopamine, improving both my focus and my performance. But all I really know is that it works.

Editing is usually done from an emotionally colder place, though even in the editing process I still find that I more often need to rev up some emotion than to calm it.

 

I don't want to see your writing, I have no interest in it or your characters. But your post just proved my point about your passion for writing

 

I never meant to go against what you were saying, nor start an argument. I was simply putting my thoughts in about how I feel. I understand that some people don’t want to be emotionally attached to their characters, and that’s fine. People have different ways and thought processes on how to do their writing, and none of them are wrong. In the end, if the book gets published, you won. Doesn’t matter what it took to get there as long as you get there.

 

Okay, but what about this? You asked me to link my writing. Not cool.

I don't understand what you're trying to do, but I think this is a sign a need a break from the forum. I came to the forum to discuss writing, not to be called out like you're doing. It's not cool to make people feel like they don't belong even if it's just on a forum. Sad really. I thought I had some insight worth sharing on this and other threads. I don't like what you're doing, and I would hope you give it some more thought before doing it to someone else.

 

..... and we're rounding the infamous hairpin turn to the Page #9 stretch of a thread, the topic of which, by definition, is experiential and personal, thus cannot - literally cannot - answer to a right/wrong dynamic much as the players are invested in that being the outcome. Please note that the forum extends no insurance policy to those who spin out on the turn and find themselves careening against the retaining wall.

 

Yeah I noticed, why is dead rats afraid to admit he's passionate about his writing that's not the same as being emotional

 

Why are any of you concerned with the manner in which another person engages their writing? Honestly, that comment was to all of you.

 

Man, please chill out and stop singling people out. @deadrats shared a personal experience for the sake of discussion. I'm not sure why you've made this person a target, but it's really uncool. This fantastic thread will likely close if you continue down this path.

It's not really cool to call people out and demand they show you work just because their process is different from your own.

 

When I'm actually writing, I tend to see my characters as all being expendable pawns that I can move and use for my enjoyment and success. However, I've found that, when I'm editing, I get invested in my characters as I would with the characters in any book. I'm usually even more invested in my own characters because I tend to develop them more than I could ever put on paper, but in my head.

For example, when I was editing my first novel (one that's on the backburners at the moment), there was a scene where the MC was watching security video footage of his love being betrayed by their organization and tearing everyone to shreds out of pure rage. She then believes that MC was in on it and turns against him.

When I was writing this scene, I really didn't feel much except for excitement because this point was when the story really starts to pick up. However, when I was editing, I literally felt my heart breaking for MC and Ms. MC because they'd both been through so much already and they were all that each other had.

Anyways, that's just me. Not sure if that's weird or not, but I'm a strange guy, so I wouldn't be shocked.

 

Don't encourage me!

I was trying to find middle ground, but apparently that's too difficult

I was merely just saying passion is one of the reason why we write, don't confuse that with being overly emotional about what you write

And not all of us have a goal of being published. It would be nice, but not a goal

 

I got carried away, I apologize

 

The thread as a whole has gotten carried away. Answers were to be had around pages 4 or 5. Now it's all about the WIN.

 

Agreed, is become an exercise in futility with both sides. And I include myself in that.

 

I think the key is what the emotion is about. Or what the passion is about. Homes, you once used a phrase that's stayed with me, because it was so fucking dead-on: "mental real estate". I think emotional real estate exists, too...and different people have different amounts of it and allocate it for different purposes. And the allocation of it probably changes around to some degree, as people's circumstances change. I don't think it's about being void of emotion.

One author might allocate a lot of their emotional real estate to a scene. Another might allocate theirs to their sheer joy of writing. Another might get really emotional about connecting to their readers but not have any of the others. Another might approach it all clinically but feel a lot of emotion when their first writing check arrives because someone told them their writing was crap. Another might have some of those but have even more emotion about being able to financially help their parents.

Using myself as an example, I don't have a lot of family or a relationship taking up emotional real estate. So maybe I can inject more of my emotional real estate into a scene. But there are certainly other areas of the larger umbrella called "writing" that aren't emotional for me at all and could even be described as cold. When it comes to tenacity, it's me, cockroaches, and Cher.

I agree with the first part, but JK Rowling said (I think it was on Oprah, but I'm not sure) that when she killed someone off, she broke down and cried and was inconsolable for a few days because she didn't see it coming, and it felt like a real death. So even that can be somewhat malleable. I think it all goes back to emotional real estate. Clearly she had a lot of it to give at that time, because she finished the book and took care of business and her kids too.

Agreed. Persistence and tenacity spring from passion, but passion is useless without them.

 

, Truthfully I was just trying to find some middle ground but there isn't any. But I do agree that Emotional Real Estate is a good term and apparently I got plenty of space for rent. LOL. Cause I can get emotional and still do what needs to be done.

And let's not forget she is published and Mega fucking successful.

 

Exactly. I think I was searching for the middle ground with my post, too, JW. And you're probably right!

ETA: My God the thread moved fast while I was writing my previous post. An entire page!

 

Glitter glad to see you girl, welcome to the bar brawl. *Breaks two beer bottles and hands them to her.* When I started this thread I was coming from a very emotional place, i still feel emotional bout my characters. I also feel extremely passionate about everything that concerns my story. My emotions and my passion are like lovers dancing in step with each other. They stoke the fire of my imagination and inspire me driving me forward to do things I didn't know I could do until I did them. Passion, emotion, imagination, inspiration. These are what fuel me. You all fuel me to. Offer me your neck passionately that would inspire me.*winks*

 

Oh, wow. It appears as though I'm stumbled in on a bit of a discussion. I'll just mosey on over here, grab a comfy seat and my popcorn, and observe.

 

You'll be fine just take this pool cue. Careful with that thing I'm weak vs. wood. Pretend like you know karate spin the stick round crazily and they'll think twice about approaching you.