What Keeps You Writing?

My characters keep me writing. I love developing characters and I often grow attached to them. I partially want to finish the book for them, so they can exist somewhere other than my mind. The other part is just cause I want to be able to say I've written a book.

 

Knowing that finishing is important; knowing that if I move onto another story I'll probably move on from that too and never finish anything.

 

Pretty much this.

 

Put simply; not finishing what I start is the major reason why I've never really succeeded at anything else in my life.

I do care about my characters, I do care about the stories I want to tell, I do enjoy the process of writing a book and finding where it leads me. And I do very much want to actually get my books published and reap the rewards from that. But in the end, these are just the things that lead me to say that this is something I care about and I 'm not going to just stop because I can't be bothered to put the hard work in. That's why I need to see each story through; write it, edit it, proof it, submit it and not stop until it's finished. It's easy to just jump into writing something else; right into the juicy and interesting parts of another story that are so immediately engaging. But you can't really call yourself a writer if you never even finish a story.

I don't mind not getting published as a result of a bunch of different factors. There's some none zero chance that I'm just no fucking good. But the one thing I won't let myself fail on is just not trying. And that means sticking with stories, seeing them through, staying the course and trying to make them something real.

 

Trying to finish.

 

Ok, so I only write 1st person transgressive fiction. Yay! All of my stories are not about me, but how I am feeling and what my concerns and obsessions are. Ok, so first off there is a marriage between some set of themes and I find out what I want to match that up with in a frame of like a regular story. Like say alienation with a type of Lovecraft mix including The Shadow of Innsmouth. Now, I will take notes on a story for years before writing it, and I have notes for many stories with say 4 I have pretty well what I want or at least know what order I want to write them in.
One of them will jump out. One will be more developed. One will have more notes or better notes or both. That is the one that is ready to go. There is no such thing as writing anything else until the current book is finished. I think it is a big mistake to start anything else....even a short story. You are getting bad habits of swapping and stuff.
Now, the biggest help I can tell you is 1) write every day, even if it is changing one word in a sentence on the second draft 2) read your stuff out loud.

 

Passion. Passion. Passion. Thats what keeps me writing. It makes me feel happy. It’s something where I find myself in. It’s something I really enjoy it. To me, its the best way to express my feeling and thought.

 

What keeps me writing?

Short answer: Because I want to know how the story ends.

Long answer: There is no long answer.

 

Because the stories keep coming and they have to go somewhere.

 

I've posted this elsewhere, but it belongs here as well. It kind of illustrates what I said earlier about wanting to know how the story ends:

"If you invent two or three people and turn them loose in your manuscript, something is bound to happen to them -- you can't help it; and then it will take you the rest of the book to get them out of the natural consequences of that occurrence, and so first thing you know, there's your book all finished up and never cost you an idea."
--Mark Twain

 

What keeps me writing to finish has nothing to do with seeing how characters end up, needing to get ideas out of my head, or anything else pleasantly artistic.

I'm just real tired of lacking discipline.

 

Because I want to tell things how they really are in a way that gets across to someone else.

 

In my situation, I've just begun writing. It's so new and novel as a beginner. It's also great to absorb wisdom from some of you more experienced people.

 

Your answers feel almost like a well-placed dad joke.

 

Not every story idea sticks to begin with. The ones that stick will tend to be as you describe - there's a "point" I'm writing towards, some scene I'm excited about that I wanna get to, usually near the midpoint or maybe the climax. There will usually be at least one, probably several scenes at several different points I want to write. I want to feel those feelings, experience that scene. I like to fall in love with my characters - I enjoy my MC's company. I enjoy imagining him, a little like you enjoy imagining the person you're crushing on. However, because I write this way, my characters tend to be similar - they're not exactly the same, but definitely similar. However, I'm fine with that as long as they have depth and an interesting story to tell.

And then it's also sheer ambition - like, I will finish this because I've already put in the time and energy lol. Because I do wanna be published and that ain't happening if I don't have a finished book. Because I feel a sense of accomplishment on finishing.

And of course, the simple love of it. I love the story and I love my MC and I love the act of putting words together. I love the image my words paint and the effect they have, the feeling it evokes, the power in them.

And besides, I grow restless after a while of having nothing to write. It gives me drive and focus.

 

I love to express my thoughts and feelings in a written way. Sometimes we don’t have who carefully listens to us in a particular topic. Sometimes we don’t have who best understands us. Through writing we can express our thoughts and feelings.

 

Depression, suicidal thoughts, insomnia and hallucinations.

The world seems much darker and sadder than it really is. I write to release my negative. It helps me feel normal, and also helps me cling to reality .

 

It gets me girls.

You know what they say - "the pen is mightier than the sword",

 

Writing helps me get to know myself better and better. Writing helps me become a good friend to myself. Writing helps me treat myself as my best friend.