Pondering.

[shadesong]

So I read mouseferatu's post on writing fiction, and I got to thinking about how my writing fits into my life.

Everyone writes differently, of course. For me.... Shayara is my One Big Story, the one I've known bits of since before puberty, the one whose characters have been in my head for a decade and a half. It spans thousands of years, this story, and it fills me up. And even though I'm only giving you the highlights - just three stories, out of all of the possible stories - those stories span a decade.

This takes up most of my creative energy.

I specifically have a job that doesn't involve my creative energies at all, because I feel the need to reserve that part of myself for Shayara. Also, there are incidental side stories involving Shayara that will be told alongside the main stories. Lot of stuff there.

It's my One Big Story. I have other stories, but they're short stories... things that come out in one of two sittings, things with a neat beginning, middle, and end. Particularly the mainstream stories. The mainstream stuff will never be any more than short stories, as I have no interst in sustaining a non-genre narrative - those characters don't speak to me enough. With characters like Julia and Kat and Kieran, it's about their *lives* - with the mainstream characters, it's more about what happened last month, nothing else.

There may be other Big Stories in me. I may find some when I finish Shayara, if Shayara's ever really finished. I don't know.

For those of you who write: what do you write? Why? And how does that fit into your daily life, your day job?

Those of you who don't: Where do your creative energies go? mousegrrl and mister_wolf, I want to hear about art. :) The rest of you? What do you do? If you're not doing anything - what do you *want* to be doing?

Comments

[terracinque.livejournal.com]

I have many short stories inside me, waiting to get out.

I also have many characters and premises, waiting for me to think of a story to put them in. These are the hardest.

I have one feature-length screenplay in my head, but only the first ten pages have made it to (virtual) paper.

I write every day, but given all the things I do (drawing class, hashing, home projects, reading, DVDs), often my LiveJournal is the only writing I get done. Yes, my priorities be whack.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have half a file-cabinet drawer full of premises. :) Characters I don't have an many problems with.... my stuff is very character-driven, so for me, it's like meeting a new person - they appear fully-formed, with all of their backstory already there - I just have to ask them the right questions...

And yeah, I spend more time on LJ than I do on Shayara. :( Mostly because Shayara takes thought - essentially, I have to be quiet and listen and keep listening. Which I can't do here at work. :) I can (and do!) do outlines and little character bios here, but I can't *script* here.

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

Creative energies. I want to write. I don't actually write. I will sometime soon start to write. Right at the moment, my creative energies go into moving. All my non parenting energies go into moving. Moving sucks.

Normally my creative energies go into painting miniatures and working on my D&D campaign. Geeky outlets.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

This is why I'm limiting my gaming to one casual campaign for the time being - don't want to divert too much of the energy. :)

What do you write about, when you write?

[danorsong.livejournal.com]

I sing. All the time. Anything.. words no words there is always music about.

[mister-wolf.livejournal.com]

My fiancee put it best: "When you don't draw, you get all weepy." Making thing calms me, and makes me feel real, like my existance has actually made a mark. There are other things that give me that feeling - cooking, finsing people thier books at work, being kind to people - but with drawing, I can go back and check. Not only do I exist now, but yes, here's proof that I existed then. =:) If that makes any sense.

I actually have a "One Big Story" too, tho' I kind'a make it up as I go along, since I don't like writing so much; that's what my comic is. Maybe I'll post some of it at some point.

As for the rest of my art, I like to vary what I do. I used to draw nothing but the comic, but I'd get all bored and antsy. Life drawig and painting mix things up a bit, and keep my brain working.

I draw every morning, I draw every night. I can't really draw at work, tho' in the summer I sometimes go out and draw people on my lunch break. I draw even when I'm tired, because I'd loose my mind if I didn't.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I write as much in my head as I do on paper (or on the computer), so essentially, I'm writing every day even if the words don't leave my brain. :) So I don't get that have-to-type-it-up thing...

I'd love to see some of your comic!

[iroshi.livejournal.com]

I don't think I *have* a pattern. I can go months without writing, but I always feel like I'm procrastinating when I do. *G* I have a book in process. It was supposed to be a short story, but it decided it was a full novel without consulting me. The problem is that it's a novel without a plot, and the main characters don't seem to mind that. They just want more time together before they have to leave this universe, apparently. As long as they get to talk to each other and have sex, they don't care what nonsense I get them into. Choices, choices...I think I'm going to have to buckle down one of these days and go with Lois Bujold's tactic of, "What's the worst thing I can do to these guys?" and go from there.

The characters are always in the back of my head. I get ideas all the time. I just never take the time to do anything with them, because writing is WORK. I don't enjoy it. I just can't get away from it, either. Hrm, I wonder if that's part of my problem, lately, the fact that I haven't written anything for a while. I'll have to throw something together and find out if it helps. :)

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Shayara has a plot, but the characters like to go on tangents. Particularly Capri; she's Tangent Lass. Plus, I tend to do Bad Things to my poor characters, and they're obviously resistant to the idea; I have one that's uber-dramatically clamoring that he just wants to get laid before he dies...

Definitely write something! It may help, and it can't hurt. :)

[ilexx.livejournal.com]

i'll be a lot more grounded and mentally balanced when i'm playing/singing/performing out again. as it stands right now, struggling with writing to an empty room only creates resounding echoes.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I wanna go to ilexx shows! :)

[edie22.livejournal.com]

I never used to write. I am not creative. But lately, I've felt compelled to write. Like I have to. I have 3 fanfics going, and now my personal journaly thing. I concentrate best on my stories at work, like I'm escaping work into the stories, but not so much at home.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

You *are* creative. :)

[alfheimr.livejournal.com]

I do things as I must. I draw - at a rudimentary level, I create pieces of art - that impress other folks but leave me wishing i could do better. I attempt to play music - and usually just make jangled noises that *I* enjoy. I've taken to sculpting my own body. If I can shape that the way I want to I'll know I can do anything.

Creating is a necessity. I NEED to do it. When I don't I'm living a half life. I'm hollowed out - a psuedo-human. I start to lose "me".

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I love your descriptions of images you want to draw. :)

Of course I write...

[alphafem.livejournal.com]

What do I write? Just about everything. Mostly horror, but some sci fi/fantasy, some romance, some humour, some porn...
When do I write? In my head - constantly. On paper/disc - usually a couple of minutes a day at least. I'm a binger/purger writer. I'll go for days, weeks with only the images in my head keeping me company, and then will get them all written down in a feverish glut...

Re: Of course I write...

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I do that too. :) Work it all out in my head, poke it and prod it, examine it from every angle, interrogate characters, then hemmorhage it all out...

[gallowglass.livejournal.com]

What do I write? I have three or four Big Stories from which most of my smaller ideas spring. Actually, one of these is a group of three Big Stories which are too closely interlinked to separate without losing something from the others. I tend to write within these according to inspiration (when I'm not blocked) and when I'm not actually writing, I'm storing up plot ideas and characters. I figure I could write for fifty years and not use up all the plots and characters I've got now and yet they continue to come... <.g>

This way, every so often, I'll run across some notebooks I haven't seen in a while and if I'm lucky, there are a few decent ideas in them that I'd completely forgotten since writing them down, which is always a big plus for a day.

Why? I think the only answer to that is that, given the choice, I can't not write. When I'm blocked it's like a dammed up wall of water building up the pressure at the back of my mind, not fun in the least.

I suppose this can interfere with writing up my thesis. The close proximity of the word processor and the lack of anybody except myself to give me grief for writing fiction when I should be extrapolating historical evidence is sometimes too tempting. But then, if I can write fiction, my head is usually clear enough to write the thesis too, so they tend to go hand-in-hand.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

"I figure I could write for fifty years and not use up all the plots and characters I've got now and yet they continue to come... "

I know the feeling! I've had to cut so many characters, and reduce the roles of so many, in order to make Shayara managable and accessible... I was joking to yendi this morning that I could keep mining Shayara for the rest of my life. Shayara in 1783! In 200 B.C.!

Stuff :)

[songwind.livejournal.com]

Ok, my job DOES take my creative ideas, from time to time. Specifically, when I am on a development project. I was surprised how much creativity it actually uses. I don't begrudge it too much because it keeps the mind sharp - and I find that I have enough creative ideas to write anyway.

As far as writing goes, I have one big story that is painfully working its way out. I write other things, none I feel good enough to submit for publication but they are like lifting weights or jogging. They help me get into and stay in "writing shape". I also spend creative energies on gaming. It doesn't help with the actual creation of the prose as much, but it's a good for plot creation, character development, and things like that.

Re: Stuff :)

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

(Oh, hi, new person! :) )

That's the situation with my One Big Story.... it's been fully evolved for so long that it's taking lots of mental work for me to create a way into this world for other people. A painful, yet rewarding, process. I've popped out unrelated stories from time to time, but this one's my focus... what're you writing about?

[gothwalk.livejournal.com]

Virtually all of mine goes into writing for my 3 D&D campaigns, although I also find time - somehow - to do some freelance web work, maintain my own websites, and write background material for the D&D world - including a broadsheet published in the campaign setting, which I manage to get out about once in two weeks. Ask me for samples, go on. (Specify .doc or .txt and be prepared to wait until I get home, though).

And then there's Neverwinter Nights, which you all must buy so that you can play the modules I'm going to write for it.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

.doc please, and send it to the mindspring address! :)

[ariadnesthread.livejournal.com]

I have three or four novels in progress in my head, but they never run in a linear fashion. This drives me crazy. I want to write them and get them out of my head, but what I get are snippets of narrative or dialogue. I don't get plot points. I want to get what's become known as "The Lilith Novel" onto (virtual) paper, but it has no PLOT. It has (so far) six characters, it has relationships between the characters, and it has a lovely final scene. Beyond that, it has snippets and bits. I can't decide which part of the story to focus on (the love story, the "how we prevented the end of the world" story, or the "reconciling the cosmology" story (which is tied to the end-of-world-prevention)). Until I figure out the focus, I'm stuck.

Like I said, it's crazy-making.

The poetry I write tends to spring fully formed from my brain (insert mental image of Athena popping from Zeus's head here). It can be concrete or abstract, about important things or not, and it usually requires inspiration. I have been able to say "I'm going to sit down and write a poem about X," but I like the inspired ones more.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Shayara has plot and structure - I hope - but I have that same problem, that what-to-focus-on problem. I'm worried that I'm starting to give Katrianna's story short shrift in relation to Julia's and Kieran's and some of the other characters'... but it's starting to feel like I don't have as much room for her. That her life doesn't mesh as much as I need it to.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Which instrument(s)? And why not write, if the characters are telling you their stories anyway? :)

A hodge podge of things

[dreamcowgirl.livejournal.com]

I enjoy writing the poems or songs in my head ~~I jot them down in my paper journal ~~I think they are awful but to me they are special So I would never share them ~

I also enjoy doing crafts they relax me ~I like to make stuff then give it away ~I try to create something special for that person ~~I also have been working on my own scrapbook of my life ~~

I am learning to make candles and soap right now ~~

Re: A hodge podge of things

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I never showed anyone any of my writing until this very year... I was terrified! But people really seem to like it. It's been a huge self-esteem boost. :)

I used to make jewelry - need to start doing that again. Candles and soap sound fun!

[kajivar]

I've been writing since I was 12 or so. At first it was at best fan fic, putting myself and my friends into existing stories. Then I started my own, around age 15. I've still got those epics in my closet, but they'd need a lot of work before they see the light of day.

I went through a long period of horrible writer's block. I lost all my passion to write and get the stories in my head out. Fortunately, it seems to be finally lifting these days.

Now I mostly write storylines for larps, which I love, because I want to squish my PCs puny minds and make them cry. ;) And there's also my Shadowcrest epic wannabe that I'm struggling to get out.... I wish I had more time to write. I very rarely have time during the school year because I have to read and write for my classes. I sneak in some work here and there while I'm at work (shhhhhhh!). I'm bound and determine to get a lot of work done this summer before the fall semester starts up again.

I also think I do my best work in longhand, rather than writing at the computer.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I wrote my first story when I was 10. Due to childhood shit, I was mildly echolalic - I used other people's words instead of my own. So the story was actually an assignment from my shrink, who told me that if she found any passages in the story that weren't my words and mine alone, she'd give it back to me, and keep giving it back to me until it was all my words. It was for a fiction magazine the school was doing. Science fiction stories.

The story sucks ass. But it was all me. And I sorta got a taste for writing after that. :)

The story that would later become Shayara started coming through in dreams that were all linked together... then I started to "follow" the characters' adventures deliberately, instead of just dreaming them. And it kinda mushroomed from there. :)

And I know what you mean about no time to write! I also need time free of distractions, which is hard to get with Miss Kid in the house - I'm trying to get as much writing as I can done before her triumphant return...

[m0usegrrl.livejournal.com]

my creative energies totally go into drawing. i mean, i write a bit (on a very fannish level) and play music, but the writing is just to lay the foundation for drawing comics, and the music's mostly just noodling. i draw all kinds of stuff and have ideas for tons of other stuff i wanna draw. current projects in the works are Shayara [Number One Priority!!], stuff for a couple of Elfquest fan clubs, miscellaneous gaming characters and furries, and an eventual web comic...

sometimes, too, the inspiration for a piece will come Out Of Nowhere and i have to draw it Right That Moment. this usually happens with cartoons -- someone will pitch a one-liner, i get an image and need to draw it. [this (http://www.tunabreathcats.net/gallery/etc/gormyst.html) was one such one-liner...] other times, though, it's completely different -- there's a piece in my online gallery thingy that i got the inspiration for at 2 in the morning -- was up til 4 finding reference pics of roses and laying down the pencil so i could ink it when i was more awake. [it's this piece (http://www.tunabreathcats.net/gallery/etc/asyesew.html) -- i think i sold the original at the Worldcon in LA some years back...]

if i don't create, or can't for whatever reason, i feel dead inside. what's really bad is getting into a non-creative cycle -- this happened a lot when i was battling depression. i'd be too depressed to draw, and not being able to draw made me depressed... a classic Catch-22.

i'm doing better now. =)

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Damn straight, this is your #1 priority, woman! *whipcrack* :)

And yes, totally do Misc. Debris - and the ElfQuest porny fanholt, with one character omitted, of course. :)

*And* (lots of ands!), I'm glad you're coming back so I can drag you out of that cycle if I see you falling back into it!

writing fiend

[daoistraver.livejournal.com]

I have a lot of (over 200) poems, many are online somewhere... some on my LJ even
lots of aphorisms these days...
used to write political/philosophical essays, occasionally will still bust one out.

And I am working on 2 novels right now... 100+ pgs done on one, 20 or so on the other.

Re: writing fiend

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I have a big binder filled with my poems.... they all suck, though...

What will the novels be about?

[yendi]

At work, I keep Word open, along with anything I'm working on. If I get any ideas while at work, I can add them on the fly. I do this for my nonfiction, too, so when I'm working on a Chud column, I just have to flip over from "real" work or web browsing to write a few sentences.

And I agree about the one gaming session -- any more than that, and I don't think I'd have any leftover creative juices.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Hehehe.... juices. ;)

I wish I could do that! but they don't have Word here. Or anything else that works on a *real* computer. *pout*

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

I'm creatively stuck right now. :( I want to write, but end up just procrastinating rather than actually doing it. I do jot down notes and things at work, both on the computer and on paper. But it feels like I'm just treading water right now.

bleah--I need to paper journal more!

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Keep working on that story, where the girl stumbles into the bookshop... there's potential there! :)

[crimmycat.livejournal.com]

I write - a lot. But the One Big Story I keep in my head. When I was a kid, I would write, sometimes fan fic, sometimes other stuff, and my brother would make lots of fun of my stuff. To this day, I'm terribly shy about my writing, and tend to delete a good 90% of the stories I write as soon as I have to leave the computer. The One Big story has been going on for years, and it's a little to close to home for me to write it where anyone could find it.

I'm trying to write, to express myself - I do snippets here and there, am working on an novel in bits and chunks, fitfully with a friend's encouragement. He deletes his out of sheer frustration every time he hits writer's block, so I'm a few chapters ahead right now.

That's where I put most of my pent-up frustration and energy - I stopped drawing about five years ago, now, along with painting and charcoal sketches, so writing is my only release now. I love the alt-F4 combination or the select all - delete option - it's so much easier than throwing away or burning notebooks of longhand.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Shayara isn't autobiographical or even semiautobiographical, of course - but I find bits of myself and my interactions with others in these characters that I just didn't know were there...

[aurora-lamour.livejournal.com]

I also have a Big Story that I have been writing since high school (1989). Started with a D&D campaign and then the characters said "hey you, we are not done with you" and they have not been done with me since. I also write smaller things as well. Journalling helps when I for some reason cannot write on Miranda's (main character) story. I need to fit it back into my daily life more. Since I had a child, it has become something that was put as a low priority but I have realized, and you are partly to credit (or blame *smirk) for that realization, that this is a part of me I CANNOT ignore.