Thursday Wordcount, and a question about "feeling it"

[rj_anderson]

Well, you all know what gang aft agley. My toddler has a mild sinus infection, and was feverish and clingy this morning, which made me think farming him out was Not The Best Idea after all. So all that really happened on the writing front today was a nice update call from my agent (who is fantastic about keeping in touch, I must say!), some more

Comments

[olmue]

Well--there's certainly a lot less "waiting for the Muse to show up in her chariot to take me away" and a lot more of me snarling, "Get over here, Muse, I have fifteen seconds before the kids do another chemistry experiment in the kitchen," these days. And I do find myself wanting to preplan things a lot more beforehand so that when I do have those 15 seconds I can write madly. I think my kids are around your kids' ages, so I can definitely empathize with the insanity of it all.

Then again, I've never, EVER been able to write with music. No music, no people talking to me (around me is fine, as long as I'm not require to Be in Charge or respond to anything).

I think writing processes just have to mutate according to circumstance. I hope your youngest continues to nap for a long time ahead!

[dichroic]

I recommend Madeleine L'Engle's A Circle of Quiet, the first of her Crosswicks Journals. Among other things, she talks about writing A Wrinkle in TIme while raising three children and running a general store, being able to write only in the exhausted evenings when the children had gone to bed.

[timeheldinsepia]

My brain is not wired for music and writing, most of the time. Sometimes I can listen to Vaughn Willimas, but that's about it. In my twenties, I *could* listen to music and write; maybe (in my case) it has to do with age.

[elizabethcbunce]

For me it has less to do with interruptions/or not... and more to do with "I'm not wired that way." I guess there's just so much tweaking and tinkering and *adjustment* that goes into making a book perfect that it's impossible to stay caught up in the moment. I mean, if I have to decide "comma here or semicolon; do I split this sentence into two? And should Rosie's dialogue maybe come earlier... and while I'm at it, would she *really* say 'contemptible'??" it sort of interrupts the deep emotional impact for me.

Certainly there's an emotional peak I'm trying to hit with every scene and sentence... but I'm not likely to find *myself* distracted by it. I can't afford to--I'm too busy making sure all the words are in place so the *reader* can get that feeling.

I can lean back at the end of a scene, breathe it in, and "feel" whether it strikes the right chords... but I don't generally feel it *while* I'm composing.

(So what I'm saying is, not channelling your characters' angst doesn't make you a bad writer.)

[rj_anderson]

Certainly there's an emotional peak I'm trying to hit with every scene and sentence... but I'm not likely to find *myself* distracted by it. I can't afford to--I'm too busy making sure all the words are in place so the *reader* can get that feeling.

Thank you -- this is just how I feel as well. It's a relief to hear it from someone else!

[izhilzha]

I second that--I mean, I've certainly had times when I *did* channel my characters' angst (or, heh, allowed them to channel mine), but I tend to be too involved with the creating part of writing to get entirely lost in the emotion. (I often chortle if my dialogue turns amusing, but I don't think I've cried when writing since I was very young.)

Though I am still single, and I do still use music both as inspiration and to block out the noise the rest of the world is making around me. A mental nest, if you will, where I can focus on other things.