How has writing changed you?

I was sitting in a café yesterday pretending not to listen to a conversation between three men at an adjoining table. They were talking about kissing a woman who had been eating garlic.

Taking out my notebook would have been too obvious, so I pretended doing the crossword and made little notes at the side to remind me

Unfortunately, the conversation deteriorated to gutter level and made me laugh, thus drawing attention to myself and I had to stop writing. Those little notes are now on paper for posterity, something I would not have done before I started writing (seriously).

I curse more.

A long time after I started to write (and a year or so after I finsihed university) I went back and took a degree in Literature with teh Open University (which has a great creative writing option in the degree)
http://www.open.ac.uk

Which made me think alot more about what I was writing, but it also made me pay more attention to what I was reading. A result of which i found myself picking up on things that annoyed me more.

Writing turns my silent screams of pain and frustration into words.

It also has given voice the the joys in my life when it didn't seem, at least to my conscious mind, that there were any.

IdiotsRUs said:

Apparently I'm also a bitch to watch films with as I try and piece together backstories for all the characters and pick apart the handling of scenes and 'Huh, that character wouldn't do that!' and 'That's stupid - that plot hole right there'. Mu husband makes up for it by watching for 5 minutes and working out the twist at the end of the film.

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I've been accused of this too, but I don't think it's from writing as much as from studying English Lit at uni. I don't think writing has changed me at all.

It makes me sane. I am able to function in society as a sane person. Of course,I am bug guts insane. But writing organizes all my mad thoughts and ideas.

It makes me happy. I can sit down and go into my fictional worlds and be happy as all outdoors. Writing is my joy,passion,and after my children,my deepest pleasure in life.

It almost gives me a physical high.

Like others,I listen to conversations and movies,breaking down scenes and dialogue. My brother often tells me to STFU!

Writing has made my life better. For once, I know that I have potential to do something great that people will like. Writing is how I vent, and how I unwind. If something bad happens to me, I write about it either in my diary, a short story, or sometimes I go so far as to out it in one of my novels. The villain in my current WIP was actually based off of someone I despised, so I wanted revenge and created a character that resembled her.

I spend more time sitting.

I read with a critical eye, unless I get totally absorbed in the story, which means that writer did a great job of reeling me in.

I dog-ear many pages in a book so that later I can go back and reread a certain phrase or description or dialogue that caught my attention.

Writing has made me a better writer.

I find myself being even more critical of my own writing, which is not a bad thing, but also I watch more movies/tv in the genre I write than I did before. I'm really not one for tv anymore, used to be addicted to it, but now when I do watch something it's generally Sci-Fi/Fantasy. Plus I've broadened my reading horizons as well.

I now can't look at a poster, or read a leaflet without checking for misplaced apostrophes.

Thanks writing!

AryaT92 said:

Ever since I began writing / beta-reading etc. I have found myself living differently.


Have you guys started seeing things in a new perspective after writing?

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I think I am probably less critical as the world looks different when you are a manufacturer rather than a consumer - I tend to spot poor workmanship but am less intellectually critical.
I also make less effort to conform and be obviously organised. People are more forgiving of creative people and are actually a little disappointed if you don't fit the 'eccentric' stereotype. I am no more eccentric than when I was a corporate exec but I make less effort to appear sensible.

I've always loved improvised drama and reading fiction, but took up writing fiction to balance my head out a bit. I've always tended toward more analytic work. For me, people have always been behaviour and motive. I knew what they were feeling, but their emotions were irrelevant to me.

The craft-learning is changing how I look at fiction -- which I'd expect: cooking changes how you look at food too. But since I've been plotting characters' emotional journeys, people also say that I'm more agreeable, more sympathetic toward them.

I don't know if that's really true, but I am starting to tear up when I hammer their lids down.

Jake.C said:

I now can't look at a poster, or read a leaflet without checking for misplaced apostrophes.

Thanks writing!

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Exactly!

I'm with the OP on movies now. Dealing with criticism and rejection has given me a bit more skin. I no longer have illusions that I'm going to please everyone; I am going to fit where I belong in the pile of writers and stories. And that's okay.

Facing the "it just won't work out" rejection letters as well as the "I clapped my hands with laughter" acceptance letters for the same story makes me appreciate how fickle readers and the business can be, and that's okay too. I think overall I'm much more realistic about the world.

I've been writing since I was little, so like some others on here, that part of it hasn't changed me. I do use freewriting as a way to work through problems, which is fairly new for me but very effective.

Really, it was trying to publish my writing that changed me in several ways. I have a much thicker skin, along with the ability to separate myself from my work. I notice more about things going on around me (though one of my profs likes to argue that I always noticed them, I've simply learned how to realize that I noticed them). It's also taught me not to worry so much about finding any single "right" way, but just to have fun with it.

Those are all lessons which I'm also learning to apply to my teaching, so you could also say that writing makes me a better teacher. My students thank you all