Were you excited from the get-go?

IReidandWrite · Aug 19, 2006

When you first began writing, were you excited from the very start, devoting every minute?

For the first few months of my first WIP, I wasn't crazy about it. I maybe put down a sentence a day.

Then, later on, I fell in love and more ideas came to me.

How 'bouts y'all?

veinglory · Aug 19, 2006

I only started writing out of sheer boredom. I find it entertaining now as I did then but I must say I never get terribly excited. I'm just not a very excitable person.

triceretops · Aug 19, 2006

Years ago I jumped in hog wild and knocked out many, many books and short stories. It took me 18-months before I saw publication, but I saw a lot of it. After three years, I tired and quit. I just now got back into it and have written four books in a row and landed an agent. But...I'm begining to lose some of that luster again. It will depend solely on the concept of the next project, I'm sure. If I can't use humor or irony in a story I get very depressed and uninterested. I can't write dark and serious very long before I begin to lose interest.

Tri

Sidmyster · Aug 19, 2006

nachonaco_Grippers said:
When you first began writing, were you excited from the very start, devoting every minute?

For the first few months of my first WIP, I wasn't crazy about it. I maybe put down a sentence a day.

Then, later on, I fell in love and more ideas came to me.

How 'bouts y'all?

Im similar to you

i atarted writing about a week ago

but i usually write a bit then i will loose interest for a day or two
only written about 200 words so far

and 1000 of them dont fit into the plot....i just wanted to write it

aric77 · Aug 19, 2006

of course!!!

wheni first started my novel, i was anxious because :e2faint:

i didn't know how it would turn out,but as i got more and more into the story i losted that feeling. just before i was finished, i got really excited because i was finally goin to finish it after so much time.

so yeah its a rollercoaster ride of emotions when you write. it may not always be good, but you will never forget the ride. EVER :e2headban

Scrawler · Aug 19, 2006

I get excited when I learn something new about the craft and can put it to use when I'm revising and editing.

Sassenach · Aug 19, 2006

Sidmyster said:
Im similar to you

i atarted writing about a week ago

but i usually write a bit then i will loose interest for a day or two
only written about 200 words so far

and 1000 of them dont fit into the plot....i just wanted to write it

I'm going to assume you meant 2000 rather than 200 words.

And since you're a newbie, this is a perfect opportunity to get clear on lose vs. loose.

NightWynde · Aug 19, 2006

When I first started writing I got very excited. Then again, I was eight, I was excited about everything. That didn't last long though (as eight year olds are prone to get excited about something else entirely). Oh, don't get me wrong, I knew I had "the bug," just that I wore out for a bit.

My next big surge was when I was twelve, and then again at fifteen. Up until I was in my 20s, it came and went with the tides. Afterall, I didn't have to worry about making money with it, so doing it as a hobby was just fine. Then I had a few articles printed in a very local newspaper, which, while it wouldn't make ends meet (heck, it barely paid for the ink) made me feel like I was progressing.

Then I realized, I really don't want to do non-fiction...novels were where my heart was at (besides, getting paid was touch and go...and once the newspaper went belly up, I figured moving on was best). On and off some more until I was about 28 and I destroyed everything I had created up to that point and stopped for a year. Didn't even pick up a pen except to sign a check.

About a year after that, it became touch and go again until I was in my mid-30's at which point I said "Dang it, I'm going to write every danged day or die trying." A couple more novels tossed (for different reasons) and here I am.

MajorDrums · Aug 20, 2006

i've always been excited about journaling. since i was young, i always kept a diary or journal. when it comes to fiction, i find myself getting excited about ideas, but feel apprehension to actually sit down and expand on those ideas, feeling like i would not be able to bring justice to those ideas somehow. i need to get over that, though; i feel like i have an idea that is just itching to get expanded.

janetbellinger · Aug 20, 2006

I was excited while I was writing my first novel. I sometimes still feel that level of excitement while writing, but it is tempered with the knowledge that I have years of onerous rewriting ahead of me.

MMWyrm · Aug 20, 2006

I dreamed my novel, then did absolutely nothing with it for about a year and a half other than writing down the first line. Then, one day, I just typed the first line into Word and sat down to write. I was excited about it when it began to take shape on the screen. Now that I have been editting it for far too long, I'm not so excited anymore.

And I'm having trouble being excited about anything else.

Bamponang · Aug 20, 2006

I start out very excited about the story and characters. Mid-way through, it loses its lustre, so I put it away.

Then weeks/ even months later, that story may start bugging me again, so I go back to it.

I'd love to find a way to sustain the initial excitement, because that's when the words flow easily. I also know that's not a sustainable way to work if your work is on contract ( unfortunately I still have the luxury of not working to a contract)

On the plus side, I like the fact that I always have a project in a state of incompleteness, so I constantly have something to finish, polish or send out to publishers when my current WIP loses lustre.

Anonymisty · Aug 20, 2006

I remember working on my first novel. My toddler son was asleep. My husband was at work. I had an Andre Segovia CD playing and I was cooking through the narrative like the world might end tomorrow. When I finally stopped for the night, I was gleeful at how much I'd finished. I knew I had to get some sleep for work in the morning, but I lay in my bed thinking of what I'd write next for what seemed the whole night.

These days I don't usually manage that level of excitement, even when I do have a really good night. I still write, and enjoy it, but the feeling has been tempered. The thrill comes differently now, when I beat an uncooperative chapter into submission or suddenly think of a really excellent plot twist.

earthshoes · Aug 20, 2006

I loved every minute of writing my first book. A heady experience just to finish that one.

Witness Tree was a different story. It was a lot harder, but only because I set the bar quite a bit higher and I treated writing like work--meaning I sometimes wrote when I didn't feel like it, that when I was suffering from writer's block I either deleted entire scenes all the way up the point I stopped feeling good about it (instinctively) and rewrote, or I pushed through it. L learned to write on a schedule with a daily word count goal (didn't always make it and sometimes I wrote quite a bit more, but a 1000 words a day was what I shot for).

I cannot tell you how relieved I was to finish it. A lot of firsts went into it--writing with an outline, keeping notes, paying attention to mechanics etc--and not sharing any of the process with outside sources (my own backseat writer--my husband). It was a huge learning experience. As I expect the publishing process to be as well.

The next project is already planned and I intend to combine the fun of the first with the structure of the second so that I walk away from it feeling good about it.

Jamesaritchie · Aug 20, 2006

excited

What does excited have to do with it? Writing is something I do. I find it enjoyable, but jumping out of a plane it ain't.

Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

I try to live by this. If I decide to do a thing, then I give it all I have. I don't start and stop, I don't worry about lustre, I don't worry about excitement. Excitement always fades quickly. Even jumping out of a plane gets old pretty fast. Adrenalin junkies have to keep looking for different things to make the heart pump.

My approach has always been, This is the thing I have decided to do, so come hell or boils on my butt, I'm going to do it with all my might.

Birol · Aug 20, 2006

triceretops said:
If I can't use humor or irony in a story I get very depressed and uninterested. I can't write dark and serious very long before I begin to lose interest.

Tri

Dark humor. I'm tellin' ya, it has it's place and can make you laugh in circumstances that most people would find inappropriate.

SeanDSchaffer · Aug 20, 2006

nachonaco_Grippers said:
When you first began writing, were you excited from the very start, devoting every minute?

For the first few months of my first WIP, I wasn't crazy about it. I maybe put down a sentence a day.

Then, later on, I fell in love and more ideas came to me.

How 'bouts y'all?

When I started writing, I was not all that excited about it. My Dad had told me at age 9 that I could become a good writer someday if I worked at it, but I didn't actually start writing with any seriousness until I was 11 years old.

My first manuscript is lost to history. I had it partially written, but for the life of me, I don't know where it went. I think it was probably filed away in the circular file. It was a comedy, something I was never very good at, but it was also a Fantasy, something I am pretty decent at writing.

When I worked on that manuscript....and a couple others along the way....I would be excited for all of a single chapter, before I would end up trunking the WIP, in favor of a newer, better idea. I don't think I ever finished a WIP until I was about 15 years old.

My point is that I was kind of cynical about my abilities as a writer, and I did not have the over-excitement when I began writing that some people attribute to newbie writers. I basically wrote because writing was something I was familiar with, a way to express myself without backtalking my elders.

That's basically how it worked for me. I'm still not overtly excited about writing, but I definitely do take it more seriously now than I did as a child. I now realize that, somehow, I can do something good with my writing and that somehow I can eventually make a living at it.

But as a child, I was not all that excited about it. I did it because I knew how to write and how to tell a decent story.

smiley10000 · Aug 21, 2006

I finally pinned myself down to write a diary in grade 6. I kept it up pretty consistantly (not every day but regular enough...) until I finished high school.

I read the diary this past spring. It reminded me how much I loved to write and so I decided to do just that. I agree with James. Excited is the wrong word. Happy that I get to call something I love my (aspiration for a?) profession.

:e2BIC:

10000

KTC · Aug 21, 2006

I get really excited from the get-go. Last Sunday I wrote almost 70 pages on a new project. In the past week I have added more than 50 to that. I get really excited and write like crazy and then it kind of peters out a bit. But I need that petering, just to catch my breath and start to think about what direction I should go in to see it through to the end.

Cat Scratch · Aug 21, 2006

I was excited to the point where I kept writing, even though I personally had no idea where it was going. I'm just as excited three drafts later. At first I thought it would amount to nothing, which gave me the freedom to take it anywhere, and I was suprised it turned into an actual novel! (I've scrapped other similar "experiments.")

John61480 · Aug 21, 2006

I started writing seriously six years ago in 2000. It was the worse case of speed I had ever known. I typed so fast with excitement, the gaps in the narration were big enough to drive a truck through. It was horrible, I had finished one novel and numerous short stories during this time period. I stopped writing in 2003 to become a Sound Engineer and when I quit in 2005, I began writing Screenplays. The damn adrenaline had kicked in again and I was back to where I started with in writing. Now I'm learning to be patient with the writing process, to take the time thinking through scenes and writing them down, sentence by sentence.

kbax · Aug 22, 2006

When I find a story that I really want to write, that sparks something deep down--yeah, I get really excited. Sometimes to the point where I jump up and down, make squealy noises, and clap my hands. I'm a very excitable person, though, so most people who know me wouldn't be surprised by that.

Somewhere around the middle of a novel, the excitement dies and it becomes work again. I don't know why that is, but I'm still learning how to deal with it and just--keep--writing.

Southern_girl29 · Aug 22, 2006

For some reason, I get more excited about a really good feature story that I'm writing for the newspaper. With my fiction writing, it's different. I'm not even sure what it is. I just know that I have to get the words down on the paper, or they'll keep bugging me until I do. Most of the time, when I sit down, I just write until I'm out of words for that day. I guess you could it a compulsion.

Perks · Aug 22, 2006

For reasons I haven't fully discovered, I avoid writing much of the time. But when I get settled in and concentrating, I get so wound up. Sometimes I need to put on extra deoderant.

I love it. I'm a dork and I, obviously, don't care who knows it.

ETA - and to the original question - yes, it's always been this way, but I haven't been doing it for all that long. Check back with me in ten years.

MidnightMuse · Aug 22, 2006

I don't know about excited. I do get into it sometimes and, like the dork above me

can sit and keep going until I start to hear flies buzzing. Or my arse goes numb!

I have moments of laughter when I come up with something that cracks me up (read; Dork) and times when I'm convinced nothing I've written is interesting in the least. I do get happy when some particular plot twist reveals itself to me out of the blue, and I get this really nice feeling of security and "warm fuzzy" when a new story idea begins to bubble up inside my brain.

I think the years of doing this, coupled with the knowledge of how hard it really is to do well, and sprinkled with the understanding of just how long it really takes to go from point A to point Z keeps me from jumping up and down with anything considered excitement.

But ask me again when I land that publishing contract

Were you excited from the get-go?

IReidandWrite

veinglory

volitare nequeo

triceretops

Sidmyster

aric77

Say 'el-lo to the BADGUY!!

Scrawler

Bored fanatic

Sassenach

5 W's & an H

NightWynde

MajorDrums

Kidnapper

janetbellinger

MMWyrm

Bamponang

Anonymisty

earthshoes

Not User Friendly

Jamesaritchie

Birol

Around and About

SeanDSchaffer

smiley10000

What do we do? We write...

KTC

Stand in the Place Where You Live

Cat Scratch

The Peacock Next Door

John61480

The Elements of Style

kbax

Refrigerate After Opening

Southern_girl29

Perks

delicate #!&@*#! flower

MidnightMuse

Midnight Reading