What's the longest you've ever gone feeling good about your writing? And I don't just mean satisfied but more like riding that writer's high. Some sort of break through in your work or your publishing that feels like it just elevates you. You have more confidence and feel less like a fraud. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Who here has had that writer's high and how long can something like that really last?
The HFN high has lasted with only brief breaks since I started the HFN, which was...Juneish of this year? I'm not saying that there aren't very frequent moments of, "What gives you the delusion that you can write?" but the enjoyment remains even with those moments.
The early reviews of Under the Knife, which included praise from Publisher's Weekly and USAToday.com had me floating inches above the ground for a couple of months, then I got another boost a few months later when it won/placed in the 2016 Rainbow Awards. I've never felt better about my writing than I did during those times. The validation of over a year's worth of work and a scary switch to original fiction meant so much to me it's almost impossible to describe.
I think I know what you're talking about. Like... not just happy, but literally high? It usually lasts about a day. I'll get a good review, or a beta will write me an email gushing about how much they love the story. Or I'll write a fantastic plot twist that really excites me. I'll feel "high" for like 1-3 days. The longest was probably a week, when I got my first acceptance letter. Then it would come back occasionally, like when I got my cover, or I got edits back, or the day the book was actually published. It's the whole reason I write. It's better than sex. It's this intense feeling of just... complete satisfaction.
Not long, because if I'm riding on a high, I'm not improving or moving forward, or maybe not even writing. For me, the high, when it exists, is about the aspects of writing that are in my control, such as learning a new technique and having it work, or writing better than last year, or hitting a personal goal. ETA: I'm that person who prefers never to see reviews or likes, but these days for business reasons you have to know what's going on, so I have someone else track them and tell me only what I absolutely need to know. Alpha and Beta reads are different.
There's a few different types of writer's highs, in my experience: - Getting praise/adulation/good reviews/good news about your work; this validates your ego and should only serve to let you know you're on the right track, rather than becoming the track itself. Very surface feeling, which isn't to imply there's something wrong with it. Sometimes our surface needs to be validated. - Having a good writing day or a series of good writing days; this will leave you with a subtle, but effective glow that instills more confidence and a general spring in the step. You think about your project a lot (when not thinking or paying attention to your significant other and/or the rest of your family), and you like thinking about it, wondering what's going to happen and marveling at what happened already. - Achieving a momentum, especially with a longer project, where you've worked hard for a long time discovering and inhabiting your world/s of creation and can't wait to get back on the saddle every single day or night or whenever, knowing you have the confidence to take this one to the end; this is a confident feeling, but more than that, it's something almost messianic. Hell, it is that, but without the pejorative connotations of megalomania, because you really are the messiah! Hell, you're the messiah of your own creation, and doesn't it kinda feel cool to be the messiah? Yeah, not too shabby, you got this hidden knowledge that no one in your day-to-day knows about. You're not delusional enough to disappear inside story-land forever, but daydreams are intense. /please excuse all this, it's late, haven't slept, neurons misfiring . . .
It's definitely a matter of days rather than weeks or months for me. Most likely it's even down to hours and minutes. That feeling of euphoria is awesome though, and it often comes from finding that thing that just fits on so many levels in the story and I often don't even know where it came from, that's when the high hits. That's the magic of writing for me.
I don't get why you aren't moving forward. This sort of high makes me work hard and work at my best. After all, the high comes from being a writer and I know if I want to keep feeling like this what I have to do, which is write.
I think my longest is two days. It came from writing one paragraph, but it was just so beautiful and exactly how I wanted it to go. Even though it was mere sentences, it made me feel so good.
When I got very positive feedback from a published writer in my genre on my current WIP, the high lasted all through the revision process. In fact, it was the best I've ever felt while editing. The suggestions all felt right to me, and it was fun exploring previously unconsidered story lines. I came through the process more confident than ever that I am on the right track.
I didn't say I'm not movng forward; I'm saying it's not validation that propels me forward. Validation doesn't move me forward for a few reasons: 1. If I'm basking, I'm not moving. 2. For me, the high doesn't come from the writing itself, so validation has never been the thing that drives me in any way. My favorite part, the high if you will, is in having amazing experiences and meeting interesting people and learning new things. As long as I get that, I've already had my "high." 3. Living and working in Hollywood most of my adult life made me acutely aware that external validation can, and will, dry up at any time, for no reason. People don't lose their talent; at some point the world just moves on to someone/something else, and someone/something else gets to be the darling for a while. So I've always strived to work hardest and do my best work for myself and ignore external validation as much as possible other than whatever is necessary to track for business purposes. (And frankly I prefer someone else to do the tracking.) It's just not what drives me.
Ah shit...only I could rip myself off. I have brief (extremely brief) moments that I manage to write something half way intelligible and somewhat profound. So very rarely does it occur. As for outside influence, pretty moot on that front. So self satisfaction is the only validation I have. Whoo! I have no real validation!
