A question to authors

[warrior]

I do get weepy and occassionally shed tears at others works as long as it can managd to move me. I haven't really written anything, s6 can't answer on that.

[TetRefine]

There was only one scene in a story that made me shed tears, and part of it was cause I could sort of distantly relate to it. It was the scene where Casey tells Luca the story of his brother David in the tent in Camilo's The Perks Of Loving You. And I swear I am not being biased here. I read that scene and got damp eyes before I started crushing on Cammy. Honestly, I swear!

 

And I have never really seriously written anything so I have not become emotionally invested in my very few characters I have created.

Edited October 26, 2010 by TetRefine

[Jack Frost]

That's rather chilling if you ask me. Frosty even. . . Oh dear me, I'm really having pun with this one aren't I? I better quit before he jacks me up.

 

Oh I really am too much.

But the thing is, you're not using my real name. Puns didn't work. ;p

[warrior]

There was only one scene in a story that made me shed tears, and part of it was cause I could sort of distantly relate to it. It was the scene where Casey tells Luca the story of his brother David in the tent in Camilo's <i>The Perks Of Loving You</i>. And I swear I am not being biased here. I read that scene and got damp eyes before I started crushing on Cammy. Honestly, I swear!

 

Hm, now you got me interested. I want to read that story.

[VickyS]

I feel them much more strongly while writing it, later it becomes more of a matter of being objective or impersonal about it.

[Stargazer]

When I write, my stories are for the most part, character driven. They're like extensions of myself, some more than others. I do get emotional re-reading my own things. I actually enjoy reading my own work, even or maybe especially, the horrific dreck I wrote when I was younger. It takes me back to a place I was then and as Red Haircrow said, it's like visiting old friends.

 

Is this why I'm medicated???

[Marzipan]

I'm a grazy emotional person (try melodramatic), who bottles up her feelings all day long and when I get to imagine, read, write or sketch my story (I do all of those) I cry like a baby.

 

My eyes are sometimes watery all the time with my own stories and I'm thinking what is the matter with me when I can't write something happy and light. Since I spend a lot of my time working on my stories, if not writing, then doing something around them, I'm affraid I'm filling some kind of emotional void in my life...

 

I love reading stories that make me smile and laugh, but even if my stories have a happy ending, they are always quite dark. No matter how I push myself to lighten the story it doesn't work.

 

 

 

 

[John Doe]

What makes a good book different from a great book is its basing of the human experience. If you make your characters human, feel like people, live like people, act like people, AND make the readers see and feel this, then yes you'll be able to make people cry even yourself. I have cried over a work of mine. Because I know how that scene is suppose to be like. For others to cry at my work? I don't know. I've been told from people that they cried from my story Get There. I know I had made Nephy angry or at least frustrated with that story. And it's suppose to. I wanted to put readers in Kan's place. I cried when Kan left "home." That was the saddest part in the story for me. Because I could never do what he did (well I could but I would never want to be in that position). So yes I do, only because I know how that scene is suppose to feel.... though I can't speak for my readers reading my work.

[ricky]

When I write, my stories are for the most part, character driven. They're like extensions of myself, some more than others. I do get emotional re-reading my own things. I actually enjoy reading my own work, even or maybe especially, the horrific dreck I wrote when I was younger. It takes me back to a place I was then and as Red Haircrow said, it's like visiting old friends.

 

Is this why I'm medicated???

 

No, your medicated because you're probably nuts. But that's why we love you so much.

[ricky]

I'm a grazy emotional person (try melodramatic), who bottles up her feelings all day long and when I get to imagine, read, write or sketch my story (I do all of those) I cry like a baby.

 

My eyes are sometimes watery all the time with my own stories and I'm thinking what is the matter with me when I can't write something happy and light. Since I spend a lot of my time working on my stories, if not writing, then doing something around them, I'm affraid I'm filling some kind of emotional void in my life...

 

I love reading stories that make me smile and laugh, but even if my stories have a happy ending, they are always quite dark. No matter how I push myself to lighten the story it doesn't work.

 

 

Perhaps your writing is therapeutic for you. I know when I was quite young, writing allowed me to vent my feelings and in doing so, continue to exist in a world I struggled to be a part of.

 

The bottom line? Keep writing. You'll find a happy storyline eventually.

[Zolia Lily]

I have to be moved by my writing to like it. If it doesn't move me, i don't think it's doing it's job, so i'll probably either scrap it or go for a complete rehaul of it. That said, when i go back and re read it, it doesn't always have quite the same emotional impact on me as it did when i wrote it. It has to make my heart sink into my stomach or make me choke up when i write it, but it does depend on what i'm feeling when i re read it as to how bad it effects me.

 

 

[Stargazer]

No, your medicated because you're probably nuts. But that's why we love you so much.

 

Oh yeah, that's right. I'm getting really good at typing with my tongue. *twists and tugs at straight jacket*

[DKing23]

I am not an emotional person, so I really don't invest any emotions into my writing. I haven't shed a tear in about 9 years, so I don't believe that my emotions would come out after reading one of my own works. Even though I write about really dark things, I am always detached, because I try to write story without emotion involved, which leads to a better understanding of the characters and thus a better reaction from the readers.

[Nephylim]

 

I love reading stories that make me smile and laugh, but even if my stories have a happy ending, they are always quite dark. No matter how I push myself to lighten the story it doesn't work.

 

 

 

You can't push yourself to write anything, or in any particular way. If you have to straing then the story reads strained. Let if flow and be as dark as you like

 

I know I had made Nephy angry or at least frustrated with that story. And it's suppose to.

 

Only in the best possible way... as it's supposed to.

 

No, your medicated because you're probably nuts. But that's why we love you so much.

 

Same goes for you hun

 

I am not an emotional person, so I really don't invest any emotions into my writing. I haven't shed a tear in about 9 years, so I don't believe that my emotions would come out after reading one of my own works. Even though I write about really dark things, I am always detached, because I try to write story without emotion involved, which leads to a better understanding of the characters and thus a better reaction from the readers.

 

Do you really think that an emotionless story produces a better reaction from readers? Don't take that as a criticism just a genuine curiousity as it is almost diametrically opposite to what I write and what I feel. I am NEVER emotionless... when I am writing or not, and the feedback I've had is that readers like the emotion in the stories I write.. good, bad or just plain strange. Your story Ice Blue Assassin lends itself to a dispassionate approach but in a different setting (ie kind of story) I think I would find it dry and practically impossible to read.

 

I am drawn to stories that are dark and some of them need to be dispassionate but I am naturally drawn to and find most enjoyment in those which are full of emotional richness

[Marzipan]

Neph: you are so right. I'll keep on enjoyin the light hearted works of others and let my stories come out as they do. Maybe one day I'll pour out some silly, funny piece of story that has nothing serious in it. (Not holding my breath)

[Zolia Lily]

HA i remembered something else i do when i write...

If i re read an angry scene or an upset scene i've just written... sometimes i find myself making the faces or gestures to go with it. Angry faces or sad faces. Pointing fingers. The whole shebang. And even mouthing along. WOw. That must look really weird.

Am i alone here?

I mean, i figure i am.... but... you never know.

.... right?

 

 

[Marzipan]

HA i remembered something else i do when i write...

If i re read an angry scene or an upset scene i've just written... sometimes i find myself making the faces or gestures to go with it. Angry faces or sad faces. Pointing fingers. The whole shebang. And even mouthing along. WOw. That must look really weird.

Am i alone here?

I mean, i figure i am.... but... you never know.

.... right?

 

 

 

Lol, Lils, you are not alone!

 

[Zolia Lily]

yaaaaay!

Maria lovely- this is getting stranger and stranger though

LOL. maybe we were separated at birth or something....

 

 

 

[ToddYoung]

One of the best things about re-reading my work is being stirred by the emotions. I do laugh and sometimes cry, though more often I find myself annoyed by mistakes I have made -- bad phrasing or stupid errors.

[Menorain]

I'm something of a perfectionist so I usually just nitpick when I reread something. But yeah, I still feel interested in it. I don't think I'd cry. Unless maybe I wasn't sober haha

[Stargazer]

HA i remembered something else i do when i write...

If i re read an angry scene or an upset scene i've just written... sometimes i find myself making the faces or gestures to go with it. Angry faces or sad faces. Pointing fingers. The whole shebang. And even mouthing along. WOw. That must look really weird.

Am i alone here?

I mean, i figure i am.... but... you never know.

.... right?

 

 

 

Definitely not alone! I talk out my dialogue, make the appropriate faces, cry, get angry. Omg, I just caught myself about to say 'the whole shebang,' too! lol

[Marzipan]

yaaaaay!

Maria lovely- this is getting stranger and stranger though

LOL. maybe we were separated at birth or something....

 

 

 

 

 

Yes hon, our birth mother just had a very long labour - 10 years.

 

But it is a scary connection we share

[J_Ross]

I was going to just vote in the poll but I couldn't because my answer isn't there. Soo...post.

 

No, my emotions generally are not stirred, but not because I'm not emotionally invested. I've cried WHILE writing something before, but mostly reading my own writing is painful. It's interesting sometimes to see how I've grown, but for the most part, I find myself cringing and wondering at the fact that I even wrote that. I think because we grow. I'm never in the same place at the end of a story that I was at the beginning. So rereading has me cringing and going 'wow, this...really could have been better'.

[Sara Alva]

I was going to just vote in the poll but I couldn't because my answer isn't there. Soo...post.

 

No, my emotions generally are not stirred, but not because I'm not emotionally invested. I've cried WHILE writing something before, but mostly reading my own writing is painful. It's interesting sometimes to see how I've grown, but for the most part, I find myself cringing and wondering at the fact that I even wrote that. I think because we grow. I'm never in the same place at the end of a story that I was at the beginning. So rereading has me cringing and going 'wow, this...really could have been better'.

 

Yeah, I agree with this. If I leave my writing alone for longer than a couple of weeks I have an urge to tear out all my hair and rewrite it completely when I see it again.

[Zolia Lily]

totally agree with both KingdombytheSea and J.Ross. But i actually purposefully leave things aside for a while and come back to them, then i see what i don't like anymore, re edit, re write what i need to, add more in... try to make it more emotionally gripping, and just plain MORE than it was the first time around. Just better, actually.

Hopefully it works.