How do you feel about your work when writing it?

Well, I'm not a horse and it's been a few years since I stopped making music but yes the creative energy is broadly similar to writing fiction, at least in my experience. The joy is in the initial burst of an idea as the parts emerge and you can see something taking shape even if you're not sure what it is. Then comes the grunt work of arranging and mixing the thing and trying to figure out if it's actually any good.

Writing fiction usually takes longer though.
 
Mostly terrible. Sometimes it improves with redrafting.

Comedy's often the other way around. A nice joke is always nice to read. But when you've read it 8 times, it sucks all the humour out. So by the time I'm on a final proofread, I'll maybe smile twice or thrice for 80,000 words.
 
I am all over the place, usually in close succession, and tending towards the negative. This is a fair summary of my process:

I write a draft of a chapter, and go to bed astonished at how brilliant and lucid I am. The next day I re-read the chapter and can't believe how utterly terrible and unlettered the whole thing actually was. Sometimes I rework it, sometimes I just move on. By the third day I've usually convinced myself the underlying story is very strong, I just need to coax the emotions out with better language on revision. Eventually I get around to revision and spend forever tearing out my hair to get everything perfect. When I'm cautiously optimistic in my own brilliance once more, I upload it to another forum where I do my workshopping, and I'm promptly reminded that everything I wrote is garbage, the arcs aren't right, and the whole thing is in need of another major revision.

That is as far as I have gotten so far, but I do hope to eventually make it to an end product with which I am really happy. For now, I just go to the pub and/or the therapist, question my life choices, quit writing for a bit, and start the whole thing over again the next month to see if I can do better.
 
I am definitely less critical of my first draft, during the writing process. I get involved in the story. But when I start writing again, I nearly always go back and edit at least a few pages before I continue. It just seems to be what works best for me. The doubts can set in any time though.
 
I always start thinking " Yep this is the one. This is fantastic" but then that is quickly followed by " Awww poop this isn't good at all."

Unfortunately the 'Poop stage' comes the moment I edit something or notice a mistake. It knocks my confidence and then I walk away sulking.

I have so many WIPs on my laptop. One day I'll finish one of them.
 
crystal haven said:
I nearly always feel my writing is bad, although that thought varies during the day. In the morning, when I'm not tired, it seems to read better. If I read my writing late at night it has deteriorated into a total mess which, somehow, reads a lot better again by morning. But I always have doubts. When I'm writing I never feel it is as good as I'd like to produce. One thing I do know is my writing is a lot better now that it was when I started. :)
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Same. I really need to quit reading during periods when I'm actively writing, even though I need the mental break sometimes. I find a book I really like and want to throw my computer across the room:

"I can never reach this level of writing! I may as well print my swill out so I can burn it." (Rending of garments and gnashing of teeth begins)
 
As for a classical musician, it is a lot like being an actor. You are mostly interpreting what you see on the page for the audience. You have certain liberties, but the notes are the notes. As for writing music, you can take it to any level you want. Music theory, however, works somewhat mechanically. It is like writing in that you are playing with tension and resolution, but unlike writing, if you want your music to be tonal, you only have so many choices of where to resolve to. Or you can write serialism and abandon tonality and any chance at people listening to it.

As for process, musicians are introverted extroverts. You spend hours each day alone practicing, then you rehearse and perform with people.

I started writing because I just wasn't feeling the creative release I needed through music. Music is a huge part of me, but writing is really what is scratching my creative itch.
 
Cory Swanson said:
Music theory, however, works somewhat mechanically. It is like writing in that you are playing with tension and resolution, but unlike writing, if you want your music to be tonal, you only have so many choices of where to resolve to. Or you can write serialism and abandon tonality and any chance at people listening to it.
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Now, I am no musician, but wouldn't grammar rules and such fill this role for writers?
Try writing something that throws grammar out the window and see how many people are really willing to read that. I don't think you'd find very many that would be interested, hehe.
 
I always think the writing is crap (and it usually is), but not the scene as a whole. The faster I write, the worse the sentences are, but the ideas I'm trying to portray are better. Almost like I'm writing a heavy outline.

Occasionally I'll find some of the writing to be amazing. I tend to write very light, with no descriptions, and add fluff later. But sometimes if I'm in a groove everything is there on the first try (mechanics, descriptions etc.) and may only need a word or two tweaked.
 
My writing process goes more or less like this...

1) Am in the middle of boring non-writing task, e.g. washing, squashed under someone's armpit on the Tube, eyes glazed over staring at Excel at work, when lightning bolt hits brain. An Idea has arrived. And now I MUST WRITE THIS NOVEL IMMEDIATELY, THAT'S IMMEDIATELY, ABANDON EVERYTHING AND LET'S GO!

2) Two thousand words in. Wow. Fingers raw from typing, maniacal grin plastered to face. It's 2am but that's fine. This is GREAT. Imagining bookstores lined with my novel, signing copies for adoring fans. Being interviewed at premier of film adaptation. Phone ringing off the hook. What's that, Harry Styles? You're begging for the lead role?

3) Ten thousand words in. Wireframe plot of nonsensical lines of dialogue and thoughts beginning to crumble. Self doubt sets in. Perhaps...this novel is not the one... No, no. Don't be weak. Persevere. You've got Harry Styles' future acting career on the line here!

4) Twenty thousand words. Am by now a mess of rewriting and anxiety. Imagining crawling to the end of this novel only for it to be submitted to agents and laughed at as the most droolingly pathetic excuse for novel-writing they have seen in their sophisticated lifetimes. Have sweaty nightmares of rejections with simply the words HA HA! scrawled in red pen, a la the Nelson Muntz Literary Agency. Spend hours rewriting one paragraph. It's 2am, but everything is Not Fine. Not Fine at all.

5) Draw diagrams of plot movements to calm brain. Realise nothing actually makes sense. How does one write bad guys? Would anyone ever, truly, be so maniacal? Research serial killers and find that, disappointingly, many real bad guys are just pathetic, not even in a Love-to-Hate them way.

6) As writing exercise, consider re-writing the Harry Potter novels from Voldemort's point of view. That will teach me how to make a sympathetic villain!

7) Wait. Where can I find an accurate source about Voldemort's family tree?

8) Three hours into a wikipedia spiral about silk moths, when disaster strikes. No, it's not a silk moth, it's a silk worm! Three sequel's worth of content shelved. Panic well and truly setting in. Twitching in sleep. The words HA HA! swirl around my brain. Voldemort re-write not even a worthy distraction. Everything is exceedingly Not At All Fine.

9) Lay awake at night and suddenly, BINGO, lightning hits again. We can make this work, brain! Just...get rid of those nasty, fetid thirty thousand words you've already done. Look. Nice fresh, clean page. This time...this time it will be The One...
 
I have to say that I am all over the place, too. Sometimes when I am in the zone I love what I am writing. Other times, I hate every word. But then there are times when I look at a piece of writing that I thought was horrible when I was writing it the day before, and I think, "This is actually not so bad." On the other hand, when it comes to editing what I have written, even if it is something I mostly love, I can find a thousand nit-picks.
 
Different books evoke different feelings.

Endeavour was my first love. There was no prior expectations and I could just write it.

Erebus, for the most part, was a pleasure to write.

Endings is like pulling teeth at the moment. I've reached the point where the ending of Endings can go two ways... A way that is more satisfying in terms of hard SF, but another, more narratively satisfying ending which requires a bit of handwavium, which as some know... I'm borderline phobic about.

Uncharted simply flowed, I'm quite pumped about this one. I'm now on the homestretch for the draft and picking up the admin side, commisioning editors and cover artists etc.

I started playing around with a new series. One day, as a break from my other WIPs I started writing it... three days later I had 15000 words... Not great words, but a good framework to work with. Shrug, sometimes you just have to roll with it.

But I have to remember my obligations to my readers... I have to be reasonably timely with Endings and must not get too distracted by the next shiny thing. When Uncharted is out, that will have my attention back.
 
I love my story as I write it, but as soon as I reread it or start to edit it, I think it's terrible. I'm trying not to look at my latest WIP until I get a basic first draft done. I am stalling on another manuscript, which is written, but not edited. I am justnot ready to hate them yet.
 
Like Ralph, my first book was murder. Second fairly easy. Third is killing me. My fault; I didn't pre plan enough. It's always a struggle and it should be. Hey, if it was easy everyone would do it rather than talking about doing it.
 
Writing is a challenge, and it's nice to hear that we're not all struggling with the same parts of it.

I fall in love with prose that's been edited to be readable. The trouble is I tend to forget the process it went through, and start to think new draft material has to be at that level straight out the gate.

Or I fall in love with a plot and struggle adjusting on the fly. I like to read, and I like to read my own writing. Except my writings aren't a book yet, and my inner child likes to throw tantrums because the book isn't there. And then she refuses to show up to work to make it a book.

Need to stop falling in love maybe? ;P
 
Time, Kitty. Just give it some time. As I'm fond of saying, writing isn't a sprint, it's a marathon.
 
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