Did it ever happen to you that you cried

Gray Rose · Jan 10, 2008

while writing your story/novel/screenplay/whatever? I am writing this short story and I keep crying, I guess the thing comes from a painful place. Not sure my readers will have such a strong experience reading it, but... I guess I am on to something with this... On the other hand, damn, it is so hard to write... I keep wanting to put it off, and every word is agony.

scarletpeaches · Jan 10, 2008

Yes, when I saw how bad it was.

Calla Lily · Jan 10, 2008

scarletpeaches said:
Yes, when I saw how bad it was.

>groan<

I haven't cried at my stuff, but I've scared myself. (And no, scarletpeaches, not because it sucked.

) I write horror, and I scared the MC. I reread it late at night with an eye to revising, and I got spooked.

JoNightshade · Jan 10, 2008

Nope, never cried while writing my own stuff. In fact, I take great delight in torturing my characters.

Although I never write anything that's directly related to anything painful in my life, as you said. The closest I got to anything personal was my female MC in Ghosts, and mainly I was really pissed off that she kept stealing my experiences and opinions. Jerk.

geardrops · Jan 10, 2008

No, but that's primarily because my heart is a cold, black place.

Gray Rose · Jan 10, 2008

JoNightshade said:
Nope, never cried while writing my own stuff. In fact, I take great delight in torturing my characters.

Although I never write anything that's directly related to anything painful in my life, as you said. The closest I got to anything personal was my female MC in Ghosts, and mainly I was really pissed off that she kept stealing my experiences and opinions. Jerk.

Jo, it is not directly tied to my life, but it's a fantasy taking place during the Holocaust.

Or am I just too sentimental? Ehhhh.... I never cry watching movies, I swear!

maestrowork · Jan 10, 2008

Catharsis could be self-cleansing, but you have to consider if your tell the story well enough that the readers feel it as well.

JoNightshade · Jan 10, 2008

I have been known to cry at a book or movie from time to time. But it has to catch me off guard - if I know I'm "supposed" to cry, I won't. So in that sense, it's hard to catch myself off guard since I'm the one doing the plotting.

Maryn · Jan 10, 2008

Gray Rose, I don't cry easily. If my own story moves me to tears, it's a good bet that it'll move at least some of the readers, too--with the qualifier that it has to be the story itself, not that it really happened, or my own personal connection to it, like that.

Maryn, tough guy (marshmallow inside, though)

Susan Gable · Jan 10, 2008

Yes. This has happened to me while writing.

If I don't feel it, how will my readers?

My husband knows to just turn around and walk away if he catches me crying at my keyboard.

Susan G.

TheIT · Jan 10, 2008

I've cried while writing a couple of scenes. Once was when writing about one of my characters attending his wife's funeral, and another was while writing about my MC's reconciliation with his father. I just hope the emotion I felt while writing comes through in the words to the reader.

Marva · Jan 10, 2008

Maybe three stories I wrote made me cry. All were, of course, based on real life stuff. Bringing up the memories can be painful.

1 - essay about my dog's life and death (I know, I know, but it did get published)
2 - story about the murder of my ex-husband
3 - story from the POV of my grandmother talking about the loss of her baby daughter to Typhoid during the Depression

All seem pretty good reasons to at least tear up.

Sunkissed27f · Jan 10, 2008

Hmm.....only once....and I wrote it when I was 15 over 10 years ago, I wish I knew where that WIP ended it up!!

Gray Rose · Jan 10, 2008

maestrowork said:
Catharsis could be self-cleansing, but you have to consider if your tell the story well enough that the readers feel it as well.

I have no idea if I tell the story well enough, and god knows I am not looking for catharsis or therapy through my stories.

Maryn said:
Gray Rose, I don't cry easily. If my own story moves me to tears, it's a good bet that it'll move at least some of the readers, too--with the qualifier that it has to be the story itself, not that it really happened, or my own personal connection to it, like that.

Maryn, tough guy (marshmallow inside, though)

Hope it will work out this way for me, Maryn. I really hope so.

jenngreenleaf · Jan 10, 2008

Yes, this has happened to me.

Ziljon · Jan 10, 2008

I cried when I wrote the last section to my setting of "The Hound of Heaven," for orchestra, choir and organ.

I'd set these words: "Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest, I am He, whom thou seekest" for pianissimo choir, strings, harp, and a solo french horn, and , coming after all the bombast which preceded it, it was just so true. It was the most beautiful music I'd ever written, and I just cried and cried.

I'm still crying because I've yet to get the piece performed.

IceCreamEmpress · Jan 10, 2008

I have a short story that I cannot read in public because I always burst into hysterical sobs.

It's a sad story (other people have cried while reading it) but I think it also dredges up some personal sorrows as well.

JeanneTGC · Jan 10, 2008

Sure, all the time, particularly when I'm killing off a character I like or a character is going through something very painful.

TrickyFiction · Jan 10, 2008

JeanneTGC said:
when I'm killing off a character I like or a character is going through something very painful.

This is it for me, too.
It's self-torture; that's what it is.

Moon Daughter · Jan 10, 2008

I haven't full blown cried at my own work...more like got teary eyed. However, when I was reading the ending of "My Sister's Keeper", I cried like a little biatch.

Thrillride · Jan 10, 2008

callalily61 said:
>groan<

I haven't cried at my stuff, but I've scared myself. (And no, scarletpeaches, not because it sucked. ) I write horror, and I scared the MC. I reread it late at night with an eye to revising, and I got spooked.

Calailiy61, happened to me, too! I was banging away at my keyboard, at what I hope is a gripping part and I think I got carried away. My cell rang next to me and someone nearly had to peel me off the ceiling!

(LOL! I must really go to the zone, because this was in the day at Borders/Seattle's Best)

Cracked me up.

~Thrill

kuwisdelu · Jan 10, 2008

I haven't cried, no. But after one novella about my MC's descent into madness and murder that ends with him killing several people before finally strangling his wife, I was left rather out of breath and in a very uneasy emotional state. I think I was left wondering just how much of me there is in him...

Shadow_Ferret · Jan 10, 2008

I don't write weepies.

KTC · Jan 11, 2008

When I came to the last 4 or so pages of my marathon novel, I cried. It might have had something to do with the fact that I was going on no sleep for about 60 hours...but I just felt the crescendo...I didn't know where I was going to stop. On the second last page I had no idea I was going to be finished in just over half a page...but I was crying because I captured a beauty and a truth for my main character. He found himself belonging after a long battle of not belonging. He was experiencing inner peace and I felt like I was him for a moment...I was attached and experiencing what he was experiencing. And...besides...Gordon Lightfoot was saying some really nice stuff about my character's guardian. Yes...Ole Gordy made me cry.

Azure Skye · Jan 11, 2008

I cried when I killed off one of my characters. It was an intense scene and her grandson watched the whole thing happen. I was crying for him, not for her.

Did it ever happen to you that you cried

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