When writing does it quickly flow for you or is it forced?

joyce · Dec 7, 2007

For the past week or so I've been so not in the mood to work on my WIP. Yesterday the mood hit me and in no time I'd added an additional 11,000 words to it. The story was playing in my mind almost faster than I could type it. When I sit there and have to think about what I'm going to say, I almost cannot write. It seems I do better when the spirit hits me and the words just roll off my mind. I can accomplish more in a couple hours when I'm in the swing of things, than if I sat there thinking and thinking and not in the mood. I was wondering does this happen to others?

KTC · Dec 7, 2007

I just sit down and pound the keys without thought. (people will jump and say that we do think when we write...that it doesn't just come out. I say to those people, "pish posh push".)

If I stopped to think and analyze and ponder, etc, etc...I would probably stump myself into a standstill. I have always been a full-steam-ahead-don't-look-back writer. It works for me. You have to give yourself permission, though. That internal editor wants to look back. Slay that bastard and your battle is over.

III · Dec 7, 2007

For me, it's like a roller coaster every single time. I have to sit there and force myself to slowly clack-clack-clack away for the first 20 minutes or so before I crest the hill and the words and story truly flow. It's like jogging in the morning - those first 20 minutes are really painful until the muscles loosen up. Although I'm sure if I forced myself to write every day it would come more naturally. I admire those with that type of dedication.

seun · Dec 7, 2007

III said:
For me, it's like a roller coaster every single time. I have to sit there and force myself to slowly clack-clack-clack away for the first 20 minutes or so before I crest the hill and the words and story truly flow. It's like jogging in the morning - those first 20 minutes are really painful until the muscles loosen up. Although I'm sure if I forced myself to write every day it would come more naturally. I admire those with that type of dedication.

I write every day and have the same start. 20 minutes to get going and then usually the words come easy.

willietheshakes · Dec 7, 2007

The short answer: both.

Some days I'm eager to get to the desk, other days not so much.
Some days I'm slow to start, some days I'm fast out of the blocks.
Some days every word feels like it's being ripped from me, other days I feel like I'm transcribing from on high, just acting as a scribe for some great creative force.
Some days are diamonds, as they say, and some days are stones.

The funny thing is, when re-reading and transcribing my first draft from the notebooks to the computer, I'll be damned if I can tell which days were which.

andrewhollinger · Dec 7, 2007

I think you'll find that many people--published, working writers too (Stephen King, William Zinser) that some days it is easy, and some days you stare at a page until beads of blood form on your forehead.

But it is the job we have chosen to do. We are the only profession that has a term and excuse for getting stumped or wanting a day off: writers' block.

The important thing is to write every day.

Then you keep what is good and revise or slush what is bad.

C. L. Richardson · Dec 7, 2007

For me it's usually forced, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy it. It's a challenge.

joyce · Dec 7, 2007

I was just wondering. I guess so much outside crap has been happening, I just have not been in the mood to write. Yesterday I felt like an addict. I could not get enough of it. I hated fixing dinner because I just wanted to sit there and write. I guess the ole creative mind woke up. I hope it stays on a roll.

Gray Rose · Dec 7, 2007

Steven King says to write 2000 words a day regardless of whether you are in the mood, and I try to follow this advice. In reality I hardly ever reach 2000 words, and there are bad days when I just cannot write, but this rule helped me tremendously. Especially when I am stuck. I get my butt in chair and start typing. And yes, it starts to feel inspired after a short while.

11K is great - you should be proud.

Codger · Dec 7, 2007

I've found that I can write 1000 words every day with ease. I then lose my focus, and anything after the 1000 becomes an uphill battle. Very frustrating.

DonnaDuck · Dec 7, 2007

One of the first things I was taught when I started writing was never to write only when you're inspired because you won't get a lot of work done that way. Like many others, I'm a little bit of both. There are times when I set to write and it just flows immediately, others when it's a push to start and then finally it gets going and the third one, sometimes it just doesn't come at all. My contribution for the FFCIII was purely forced written. I just couldn't come up with anything for it but I wrote it anyway. It is one of the best things to write just to write, whether you have something to write about or not. It keeps your brain moving, your hand writing and pretty soon the two shall meet. You'd be surprised what you'd come up with if you forced yourself to write when your mind was blank.

sunna · Dec 7, 2007

11K -

I'm up and down: I'll have days where all I sit there waiting for something to come to me and agonizing over every word; days when I get off to a good start and then run out of steam after 30 minutes; and days when I resent every interruption, because the whole thing is there and my fingers can't keep up with the story in my head.

If it feels forced, I'll get to about 1000 words and give myself a break, because I don't generally write anything but crap when the story isn't pounding on the inside of my skull shouting "write me write me now!".

Luckily, I have more good days than bad.

So far. <knocks on wood>

CaroGirl · Dec 7, 2007

I'm with the people who say they have better days and worse days (I won't say good days and bad days because every day that I write anything is a "good" day).

Shadow_Ferret · Dec 7, 2007

KTC said:
I just sit down and pound the keys without thought. (people will jump and say that we do think when we write...that it doesn't just come out. I say to those people, "pish posh push".)

Exactly. I don't think when I write (might explain why some of it's so bad). It just flows without effort. My problem lies in the fact that I'm lazy and don't put BIC enough.

BluGnat · Dec 7, 2007

willietheshakes said:
The funny thing is, when re-reading and transcribing my first draft from the notebooks to the computer, I'll be damned if I can tell which days were which.

This is inspiring. I wrote my NaNo novel, and never looked back. I'm interested to see if when I finally read it, I'll be able to tell the days that it was like sweating bullets to produce 1,667 words.

For me, if I'm writing something I can see, I can fly. If I'm trying to make it up as I go along, it's a lot more difficult. I'm trying to read and learn as much as I can about outlining and the like so that when I'm stuck, at least I know where I'm going.

Great thread!

Jersey Chick · Dec 7, 2007

It all depends - when I'm first beginning a story, I just write. I don't care how stupid it is, or how forced, or if it creates a gi-normous plot hole. I just want words on the screen. When I think too much about it, it's like hitting a brick wall, so I've learned to rein in my internal editor. Once I have the skeleton, then I can go back and go more slowly over the rewrites.

Some days are definitely better than others.

joyce · Dec 7, 2007

I know many people have an outline but I rarely do. I seem to know where I want the story to go from beginning to end before I even start writing it. Yesterday the urge hit me and I thought I'd never stop writing. I could not believe in a few hours I'd accomplished what I'd been trying to force myself to do for days. I tend to get in a slump at times and it's days like yesterday that get me moving again. I need more days like that. If I could produce words like I did yesterday, I might get a novel finished in a month. It would bring me to query hell that much sooner. Oh what a joy....

Melanie Nilles · Dec 7, 2007

I'm in the camp that says both. I have good days and bad days. And at least once a story wrote itself so thoroughly that every day was good beyond the end. (But I couldn't get my mind back on anything else for a long time after THE END.) I push myself through the difficult days, because usually once I get going, it's easier next time I sit down to write.

Azure Skye · Dec 7, 2007

Both. But I've learned not to give up when I'm having a hard go of it.

jannawrites · Dec 7, 2007

I'm in with the general consensus, in that I go through both stages. I'm having one of my bad spells now. And it stinks.

xDemode · Dec 7, 2007

Both.

2k a day makes the guilt I feel when I don't write go away.

It's weird how my mind operates. During the hard spells when I have to force myself through chapters, I constantly think that I can't do it and that writing this novel is just a waste. But then there's a feeling I get when my writing flows. This euphoric feeling. And it's just like... damn. I love writing.

& Eating.

I love eating too.

icerose · Dec 7, 2007

Both happen to me all the time. Sometimes I have to force myself to think about it and force the words out and other times they fly.

I went through 200 hand written pages in about 2 1/2 weeks, then I got some actual paid work and had to set it aside. I'll get back to it someday, but paid work sure beats the heck out of writing with no guarantee. Thankfully I've stopped at a very exciting place in the book so it shouldn't be too hard to pick back up and plow on, I've just got to get the time. Although between me and you, I hope the paid work goes on for a while.

scribbler1382 · Dec 7, 2007

I'm in the "both" camp. The funny thing is, when you give the work some space and read it over, you can't tell the parts that shot like water out a Squid's ass and the parts that crawled...ummm...like a...crawling...er...thing [fix later].

Akuma · Dec 7, 2007

Taking my muse out for dinner almost never gets her in the mood, even if it's lobster.

She's the kind of gal I have to throw over my shoulder and drag into the bedroom. She likes it like that.

joyce · Dec 7, 2007

Thanks everyone for sharing your stories with me. It's good to know I'm not the only one out there like this.

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