has your own book ever moved you?

Yeah, I'm in the wuss camp. I'll print out chapters of my WIP and read them at a restaurant during lunch and I find myself getting misty when I read a particular emotional point that I hit really well.

If you pour a lot of yourself into your writing, your emotions tend to come out too. I think it's normal.

I've never cried in one of my books, but I've never cried reading any book, no matter how touching or sad. I just don't cry often. But I have definitely felt emotional reading my own work, especially when I put such great characters through such hell.

Yes. Without giving spoilers, I STILL laugh at certain parts, still cry over others....and will read something that I've completely forgotten about, causing me to pause with shock: Wow! I wrote this.
Being that we are all our own worst critic, you can understand this is a profound moment.

I laugh, I cry. Sometimes I marvel at my wit.

Most of the time, though, I'm astounded by how my characters are so much wiser than I am.

Several times, the worst of which was when I killed off my favorite character.

I cried when I wrote it. I cried when I read it. I couldn't eat for three days afterwards and barely slept. My best friend found me wandering through Wal-Mart a few days later (I'd been there for over 7 hours), took me to her apartment, and forced me to lie on her couch and stare at the ceiling until I fell asleep.

And yes, I know I have issues.

You're not a Nancy-boy.

Well, perhaps you are, I don't know - but as to writing, it's normal to get wrapped up emotionally in your characters and their lives, and thus be affected by what's happening to them.

If that doesn't ever happen to you, you're doing it wrong.

This happens to me, but I find that the really intense emotions of sadness or hurt or misery only come through when I've had a little time to pull back and get distance; while I'm in it, my emotions tend to be more, "Is that the word I want? Really?" Give me a week or two to come back to the scene, and it works for me much better.

The funny stuff works all the time, at least for my own bent sense of humor.

Yup. My 12 year old MC has to deal with the death of her mother so, yeah. *sniffle* Damn.

Made me throw up more than once.

caw

Definitely. As I get distance from the work, less so - but that's also useful. Because generally the scenes that still move me a month later are the ones that I did indeed write well enough to (hopefully) move others, and not just the ones I'm emotionally attached to for my own weird reasons.

I'd like to say it moved me to a bigger house, but unfortunately not.

There are still parts that I can't read without crying. I am getting better though, and can now get through with merely crying, not sobbing hysterically.

Only one book. In it, I killed off two major characters. I sniffled and whimpered during the first death, but the second one was full-on sobbing. Maybe because it was a book that had taken five years to write, so those characters felt like old friends. I hated saying goodbye, but was proud that I'd stuck to my guns and killed them like I originally planned.

I like reading my own book once in a while, and it moves me to think: Gosh, what a newbie.

I haven't cried yet, but there is one antagonist hanging out in a trunked WIP that makes me angry every time I think about him. When I re-read the passages with his character I get incredibly worked up and feel like I need to continue the story just so I can have someone kick his ass, because he needs to die. Horribly. With much pain. (The bad part here is I wrote the beginning when I was younger and then didn't leave myself any clues as to where the story was going... so I can't continue it unless I sit down and write out an entirely new plotline.) Why does he make me so mad? He abuses women. Takes them as slaves (this is in a swords and sorcery type story) and does whatever the hell he wants to them, which is never pleasant. I never show him in the act of violence but I show the aftermath and it's infuriating.

<snarls>

Yes, that antagonist will die one day. Excuse me while I go plan out his demise.

Likewise I've cried and laughed at moments in my books, and been surprised at some of the wisdom and some good lines. (I've also cringed at others!).

Wayndom, I think it's very interesting that you equate crying with being a 'nancy boy'. a) Being gay isn't bad, although I know straight men hate to be considered gay, and b)Says it all about our culture and the pressure we put on men, I think that you equate crying with being gay. I hereby give you full permission to cry whenever you need, in the full knowledge that it doesn't make you a 'nancy boy', just human.

What a poofy question.


Yes, I've been moved by own stuff. Don't know if I've ever cried over it (being a rock hard tough guy) but I've definitely felt for the shit my characters go through.

I guess I'm still not sure what it means to move you.

I don't write chick lit, I write manly man stuff. So no tears.

But if the question is, have I ever written anything actiony/adventury and gone, wow! This is really exciting!

Then yes.

Or if the question is have I ever written anything so funny it makes me laugh each time.

Then yes.

But no sappy sentimentality in my stuff! There's no crying in action/adventure!

Shadow_Ferret said:

I

But no sappy sentimentality in my stuff! There's no crying in action/adventure!

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Not even when someone gets shot? <G> (I know, it's just a flesh wound, right? <G>)

Put me in the group that's been known to sit here, crying at my keyboard. If I don't feel it, how can I expect my reader to feel it?

Susan G.

I cried before I wrote the scene killing off one of my characters, mostly because I knew how hard the death would be for my MC. Poor Bianca.

I write non-fiction, so I don't know whether this counts or not, but I found myself getting teary-eyed four times in the biography I was writing -- not only at the death of my "main character" Washington Irving, but also at his final goodbyes to three close friends, including Sir Walter Scott. Choked me up.

And right before I wrote the "death scene," I looked up at the framed photo of Irving that I keep above my desk and said respectfully, "Ready?" It was actually much harder to write, emotionally, than I anticipated, especially since I'd lived out the life of my subject for seven years.

I think I've out-nancied you, wayndom!

Shadow_Ferret said:

But no sappy sentimentality in my stuff! There's no crying in action/adventure!

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I don't think I would classify anything I've ever written as sappy sentimentality. My fantasy series is jam packed with dire, action-packed situations... But when a character you've lived along side of for over 10 years looks you in the eyes and says "This is it, I know what needs to be done. I've known it all along," gives you a hug, and then goes off to sacrifice himself for the good for the story, well... Yeah, I cried and screamed and...wrote it anyway.

inked09012 said:

Yes. Without giving spoilers, I STILL laugh at certain parts, still cry over others....and will read something that I've completely forgotten about, causing me to pause with shock: Wow! I wrote this.
Being that we are all our own worst critic, you can understand this is a profound moment.

Click to expand...

I feel like this too. I laugh and cry reading my work. And sometimes reading it with shock that yes it was written by me. Great topic.