Bewitched, bothered, and bemused.

[prillalar]

I am supposed to doing some rather boring work right now and I'm going do it, in just a minute, but all I can think about is the story I'm working on. Not every story grabs me like this. Some I just want to write because they're interesting. But sometimes I have to write and then it can be difficult to concentrate on anything else.

For a light and funny story -- parody, crack, etc -- I usually get an excited rush. I'm jittery and even breathless. And very happy. Especially in the first flush of a good idea. The lightning strike really good idea sometimes makes me cry.

With a serious story, like the one that's eating me now, I feel a heaviness in my chest that's almost like a pain. And it stays there until the story is written. (Or put off for too long.) Even though the actual act of writing isn't much fun, learning the story and building it is so satisfying.

How do stories or other works grab you and demand to be created? Is it a physical sensation? Do some stories ride you and others leave you alone?

Comments

[pixxers.livejournal.com]

When I'm really inspired to write something very emotive, the urge to write literally takes over. I can't think about anything else until I work on it. It's exactly like you described it - something physical.

Coincidentally, if it's porn I want to write, that's physical also. If I have any kind of sex before I write the genius porn, I lose my mojo.

tmi, but there you have it. :)

[atama-ga-itai.livejournal.com]

tee hee. it's a good thing i have a young child and liek nevar get laid anymore, then. ^^

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

When I used to write, it was about having auditory hallucinations, almost: hearing dialogue in my head. Usually coupled with tingling in the naughty bits. *g* It was very physical, and would culminate in a kind of adrenaline surge where I'd be all energetic and have to have to have to get the story out right now. Scribbling on the bus, writing on the sly at work, etc. This was always an extremely pleasurable sensation, with lots of good emotional juice running through it: erotic, euphoric, and sometimes all heart-melty. Once I was actually writing, often the feeling would dissipate. The best stories for me from a writerly perspective were those where the energy and passion would carry me all the way through the writing process, but I sometimes wonder if those weren't necessarily my best stories from an artistic POV.

As a vidder, the urge to create is in some ways more intellectual than physical (no tingly bits), but the most exciting vid ideas still come with a rush, where the heart beats faster and the thoughts flow more quickly. The emotional component is there, as well, and with good vid ideas (unlike my stories) I get surges of pure pride at being so awesome. (: But because vidding requires a lot of steps before you can actually get to the cutting, though, it's very rare to sustain that physical and emotional push throughout the process. I generally feel it most keenly sometime during the "humus" phase of vid development: after having the song + fandom + concept brainwave, but before I've got it firmed up enough to start ripping source.

[kessie.livejournal.com]

I get incredibly excited and the desire to write takes over everything. When I was writing Choice, I literally almost dropped everything. I had it written within three days, and almost called sick into work just so I could keep writing at it. I went to class, but scribbled excerpts down instead of notes; I wrote on the sly when I was alone at work; it was all I thought about for a week. It. was. wonderful.

The two fics I'm currently writing feel like that. I get all gleeful while writing them, even if it's coming out slow. Another fic that's currently forming in my head is also showing the same signs.

I keep thinking this is rather insane and very ironic because I was considering giving up fanfic completely before I fell headfirst into Tenipuri. I have much to be grateful for in this fandom.

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

If there is anything better than the "BOOM! Good idea! Write it now!" rush, in which an entire, good fic is magically scribbled out in a few hours, I do not know what it is. Only happened a couple of times, but man, it has all substances, legal or otherwise, beat hollow.

When I need to write something, I feel that nagging, longing ache, like wanting the last piece of pie in the refrigerator. The feeling always comes in fits and starts, though, sometimes weeks apart, and usually directly proportionate to how able I am at that moment to drop everything and write.

[karendreamer.livejournal.com]

Hmmm....I can function in the real world, but I hear the guys talking to me in my head the whole time. When I finally sit down at the keyboard I usually can't type fast enough for them. I love the feeling. It is a total rush.

[eleventh-guard.livejournal.com]

Same here. I can still go to work and get my job done, but everything not mandatory falls to the wayside. And I'm a bit distracted even when I am doing something mandatory.

[akatonbo.livejournal.com]

It varies. A lot. Lately my creative urges haven't been strong enough to overcome my urges to do other stuff, except via roleplay, and even then, I haven't had much of anything make it out of revision in a long time. (Revision is where my stories go to die, apparently.)

I had a story totally eat me alive once. I got the idea and spend the next three quite busy days thinking about it whenever I wasn't thoroughly occupied with something else, until I finally got on an airplane and wrote like a demon on the plane. (That one died in revision too. One of these days I should resurrect some of the stuff that's old enough that I've forgotten most of the original theoretical revision anyway, and poke at them with pointy sticks to see what they do.)

[mad_maudlin]

I rarely get to the point where I'm "GAH MUST WRITE NOW;" my story bugs are more chronic. They lurk in the lower regions of my brain, and sneak into my thoughts like background noise, and the key scenes tell themselves to me over and over, and if I let my attention wander for a moment it always ends up on the story again, fleshing it out and building it up and putting more pieces together. But I've always held stories in my head long before they hit paper, if they ever do.

[flamewarrior.livejournal.com]

sneak into my thoughts like background noise, and the key scenes tell themselves to me over and over

Ah, yes, me too!

[atama-ga-itai.livejournal.com]

vivid mental pictures that must be written out or they'll leave me horny for weeks i suffer.

[flamewarrior.livejournal.com]

Yup - that too.

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

I dream them so vividly that I cannot put the dream out of my head. I've been known to write entire half-novels based on connected, one-plotline dreams.

[disutansu.livejournal.com]

All the long fics I am writing usually wear off at some point. But at the time of inspiration, I just have this feeling I want to get out... an idea that really needs to be written or else I'll be thinking about it forever. At that time I can get out a few pages. But then eventually it'll wear off, and I stop. Until I get inspired again, usually by a song or something that evokes the feeling I wanted to write in the fic and off I go again.

Recently, I listened to Kiss's "Because I'm a Girl" PV (with translation) and I went and continued writing this fic I've started. *was very productive* So I'm listening to it in loop until it wears off. Hopefully I'll get another few pages out before that happens.

So for me, it's usually a feeling. If it's a song that created that feeling, I'd play it in loop for hours and write. I should really note down all the songs I've listened to but... XD;;

Some long stories I can finish in a short period of time if I'm motivated enough. Other leave me, but I eventually get back to it. Of course shorter fics, I can finish in a couple of sittings, or a couple of hours.

[/non-sensical'ness] I'm randomly tired from work. >.>

[slashfairy.livejournal.com]

Some spring full-blown from a song, a photo, the flash of light in an interview.

Others lie in wait until I'm completely absorbed in something else, then slide into my lap and seduce me, until nothing will do but to give in and write, let all come as it will, and drop, panting, at the end, happy and loved.

Still others arrive one day with their orders, ma'am, and are there marching 'long beside me every day until suddenly their tour is over and the story is done.

None of my chapter fics are up anywhere, but there's short stuff up at allfor1_1forall. Randomly up, I might mention, as I clean up journals and hard-drives and stash bits and pieces all in one place 'for later'.

[melata-fic.livejournal.com]

I get something that clicks inside my head. Then my mind races and I get gleeful. Even with darker fic.

Other times, I just have to work on it and hope the fun turns up somewhere.

FYI...

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

You've been metafandomed. Expect a deluge.

[kennahijja.livejournal.com]

That's a really interesting question... I rarely get any physical reactions, apart from resigned moans when I've been assaulted by a plot bunny I know won't let me alone ;).

With short, quickly-written ideas I get very excited and can actually sit down and write someting in an hour, or a day (depending on length). With longer or more complex story ideas it's like a constant pressure at the back of my head, especially those I *know* I have no time for and postpone. There are ideas that can haunt me for years, and the niggling only lets up once I sit down to start. Weirdly enough, as soon as I've started to write, the pressure goes away, even if I stop and let it rest for months... as if the bunny is kind of *exorcised* then (because once I start a fic, it usually gets finished, even if it takes years).

The most persistent kind of bunny I get when the idea hits me either as a dream or immediately after waking up - those mostly consist of an image/scene, and usually won't let go unless they're written - very annoying, but usually they write itself rather fast.

[jazzymegster.livejournal.com]

(here via metafandom)

Mostly I get the idea, and it won't leave me alone until I do something with it. Sometimes it goes away after I've started writing, and then my enthusiasm for it dies. Sometimes it bugs me for years aferwards (case in point: my most recent finished fic was an idea I had two years ago, but even though, for quite a while, I wasn't writing, and couldn't think of a way to finish it, it wouldn't leave me alone).

On other occasions, it can be just random snatches of dialogue or prose. And then I have to work out what's going on!

It mainly feels like a compulsion, although there will be occasions where it feels exciting. And sometimes I feel sad, because I know it's not all going to end merrily. But that's about it.

Um, hope that answers your question somewhat! :)

[ilyena_sylph]

*pads in from metafandom*

Yeah. It's almost always the I have to write this now! lightening-strike slam of idea. They just hit, and grab on, and don't let go until I'm finishing it and leaning back and wondering how the hell it's 3am. The other kind of story, the 'that would be cool' almost never gets finished because that doesn't drive me the same way.

While I'm in the writing, if it's angsty, I'm typing through blurry eyes and a choke-hold on my throat and lead weights in my chest, if it's happy, i'm grinning like an idiot and trying not to bounce while I type... I interact very, very physically with the things I'm creating.

That does makes the fact that almost everything I write is fairly graphically sexual kind of difficult, yes. *nods*

The fact that my stories seem to come out all in this graphic euphoric/agonizing rush makes me wonder how people do this thing they call 'rewriting' where they take what they did and rip it apart and put it back together.... even considering the idea makes me queasy, because that's not how it happened! (That doesn't mean I don't edit. I do. just... not like that

[minisinoo.livejournal.com]

Oh, ABSOLUTELY. I really know I'm into a story when I eat, sleep and breathe it. When the characters in it comment in my head on what's going on in MY life. When I hurry up with chores or ignore them completely in order to write.

And yes, I find that what I'm writing DOES, indeed, affect my mood and affect it at a physical level. If I'm writing sadness, I'm sad and feel draggy and sleeping, etc. (By the same token, my actual mood is sometimes reflected in what I write, but only at the short fiction level. Working on a novel, not so much.)

[shadows-in-mind.livejournal.com]

I don't believe in inspiration. So it would be wrong to say something is killing me to write it. There's stories if you just let your thoughts wander a moment, always something to write about. If I had time and possibilities, I'd be writing all day long, seven days a week.

Writing is tedious job, I'd screw things up if I were to write in an endorphin rush. When I have time, I write, and usually go by the music or general mood point at the moment.