Emotions

[Kerrybuchanan]

I've just finished writing a couple of chapters in which, to cut to the chase, the guy gets the gal and a couple of good men die. A simple formula, you'd think, one we all use in one form or another, surely?

So why is it that after writing something like this I get up for a break and find my heart aches in my chest, my eyes are heavy and my head pounds with pain as though I was the woman swept off her feet against her better judgement, following her heart instead of her head; as though I was the one who cradled the boy in my arms while my tears dripped onto his face, watching the light going out of his eyes as the last breath leaves his body.

Is this normal? Is this something I should be worrying about?

If it is normal and you all share this experience, which I suspect you do, then I think writers are grossly under-valued for what they do. I feel wrung out like a wet rag.

 

[ratsy]

I think that's probably normal. We get so attached to our characters and since we are the ones writing their lives out (even though sometimes it feels like they write themselves) we can be affected by what happens to them.

I haven't quite felt like that per se but I do like to creep myself out when writing horror stuff. If I can't creep myself out then I've failed

 

[Ray McCarthy]

My stories are quite ordinary and I often cry on the last page.

 

[HareBrain]

It's quite obvious that none of you are English.

 

[Juliana]

I think my stories are too peppy for a proper cry. But I did just revise a first kiss scene and go all mushy and 'd'aww' at my little teen lovers. Will that do?

(HB, I blame it entirely on my Brazilian half. My English half is probably the one poking me in the ribs going 'don't be daft')

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

It's quite obvious that none of you are English.

I'll have you know I was born in England, but yes, my bloodlines are Irish and I live here, so point taken

 

[HareBrain]

To be honest, I do sometimes get emotionally affected by my own work -- the last couple of pages of my previous book (prior to TGP) always choke me up when I read them. But I feel a bit embarrassed by that: it's like admitting to laughing at your own jokes. (Which I, ahem, often do.)

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

That's OK, HB. I laugh at my own jokes too. If I didn't they would fall flat into a silent, echoing room.

 

[thaddeus6th]

What are these 'emotions' to which you refer?

I do not believe there's a stiff upper lip emoticon. But there should be.

I don't usually have much of an emotional reaction to my own stuff, (after seven redrafts or more it loses any impact), although it's nice when a joke stays funny on the final proofread.

 

[LittleStar]

To be honest, I do sometimes get emotionally affected by my own work -- the last couple of pages of my previous book (prior to TGP) always choke me up when I read them. But I feel a bit embarrassed by that: it's like admitting to laughing at your own jokes. (Which I, ahem, often do.)

I was just about to write almost the exact same thing. I often find my MC jokes and his outlook on his own situation hilarious - and I'm a very bad comedian - and the last few pages of some of my relevent projects when I re-read them do verge on choking me up (Im not a crier at films or books).
The worry for me comes with wondering whether I've written good stuff that will make other people feel the same way, or if because they are my characters, my investment in them shows more than it would a first time reader.

 

[HareBrain]

The worry for me comes with wondering whether I've written good stuff that will make other people feel the same way, or if because they are my characters, my investment in them shows more than it would a first time reader.

Sadly, there's no way to know this in advance of other people reading it. And then you start off worrying that the readers aren't perceiving your characters the exact same way you do, and then you get tired of trying to reconcile and control the myriad different interpretations and just say "Oh, do what you like with them!"

 

[Brian G Turner]

I don't cry at much - but a little sad music and thinking about one or more of my own plot arcs, and the tears will come.

The problem is - it's one thing to feel the emotions of your characters, but it's really hard to even put them into words for a story. We get all the nuances, but communicating that is really, really hard.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

stiff upper lip emoticon.

Asian style
Happy: ^_^
Stiff upper lip: *-* (OK I made that one up)
There are whole load of horizontal style Asian emoticons though

So far no one else has any significant emotional reaction to my writing, so either I'm doing it wrong, or they are constipated or too well brought up or perhaps too British

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

or they are constipated or too well brought up or perhaps too British

Are you sure you couldn't have Found a bigger font, Ray?

 

[Nick B]

Stiff upper lip: *-* (OK I made that one up)

Isn't that the Elton John emoticon?

There are at least two scenes in the wip that almost draw a tear. I hope the effect is the same on the readers!

 

[Venusian Broon]

I have to say Kerry I get more emotional with music...so if the right bit of music comes along while I'm writing it can easily make be bawl like bairn.

On a sorta very, very loosely related topic...(if I can define the topic as how strongly does your writing affect other parts of your life)

I've thought about my current WiP for at least an hour minimum for every day (thinking about it on the bus counts!) since early 2011. I've crafted hundreds and hundreds of scenes, each with multiple imagery and loads of ideas inside 'em. Some are 'cinematic HD' quality. I've also got a robust mental image of what my characters look and talk like....

Not dreamt about all this stuff once at night. Doesn't my mind collate and go through all that I've thought in the day? I'd love to dip into this world that I've come up with in a nice technicolour dream and explore it that way. Does the bits of my brain that handle the writing not talk to the bits of my brain that do the dreaming? Maybe I need to get up to speed with all the Lucid dreaming malarkey and try and see if I can introduce it that way.

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

I can relate to the thinking about the WIP bit, VB. I had this story rattling around in my head for more than 30 years, so you'd have thought by the time I came to write it down I would have it perfected, wouldn't you? I wish...

 

[HareBrain]

Not dreamt about all this stuff once at night.

Me neither. Weird, isn't it?

 

[LittleStar]

Maybe I need to get up to speed with all the Lucid dreaming malarkey and try and see if I can introduce it that way.

Very difficult I've found - I have quite an analytical brain which doesn't help - but very rewarding... Exploring my worlds was one of my main reasons for looking into it.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I am not given to being sick - with three pregnancies I can count on one hand the incidents of morning sickness and when nearly everyone else in my halls of residence (catered) at uni went down with something unpleasant I was fine. My skin, lungs and stomach were inherited from generations who had survived the industrial revolution in Liverpool and lived their threescore year and ten when their life expectancy was fifteen. However, one scene had me physically sick at least four times until I had written it.

Is it normal - probably not and I'm certainly not a person you should use as a barometer of the mundane however you are not alone.