WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 10 -- Monday

[linaewen]

Greetings on Monday!  What kind of day was it for you today, writing or otherwise?

Did you write?

• Yes!
• No!

If yes, what kind of writerly activity did you engage in?  If no, what were the obstacles/situations that affected your writerly pursuits?

For Discussion:  I'm going to reference Tolkien again for today's discussion question.  Tolkien’s interest was originally languages.  He loved to create his own languages based on more ancient ones of which he was intimately familiar.  He followed his interests enough to create entire cultures based on these languages and then wrote stories about them which then became legend.  He wrote about what interested him most.  Do you let your interests drive your writing?  Have you ever tried to write something that you weren't especially interested in?  How successful were you at that?

Comments

[linaewen]

I haven't written anything but this post as yet! We'll see how the rest of the day goes. ;-)

In some ways, it goes without saying that we let what we are interested drive our writing -- and that fits with many of the answers to yesterday's post, that we write because what we want to read isn't out there. I definitely am driven by my interests when I write, and that affects what I write and what I do not write. However, I think there are times when one has to write about something that isn't really of interest -- especially if there is an assigned prompt or subject for a challenge that doesn't quite fit a personal interest. So far I've been able to manage such prompts by figuring out a way to make it fit my interests, but sometimes it's a pretty far stretch. I think a good writer can be successful in writing whether interested or not, but the works written from the heart and fueled by our interests are much more powerful than the ones we write out of duty!

[ladygriddlebone]

I wrote today! In fact, I finally unblocked in a major way on a chapter I've been avoiding (to the tune of 1600 words so far), so I'm really happy with the way things are going so far today. If I can keep this up, I may actually be able to update my WIP at some point this month!

My interests definitely drive my writing. If it bores me, I'm not going to waste time writing it, unless it's something that has to happen to help move the plot toward something that does interest me. If I try to write about things that don't interest me, I feel like my writing gets really stilted and forced (possibly because I'm forcing it), and I end up very dissatisfied with the result.

[barbayat]

I wrote just a few words, but today my mood is generally down the drain ... and I need to work on a paper but I just go ..................................

Mostly I write about what interests me, I focus on characters I like and address problems that concern me or I find important. Sometimes I think I need to expand a bit more to topics that are of interest to others though ...

[the_rck]

I wrote. I feel like it's an undigestable lump of text, but that's what rough drafts are for, right? I'm so near to finishing this scene, so very, very near.

I generally have to find something to be interested in when I'm tackling a story. It's usually a character moment or character arc. I do write for exchanges, so I've tackled writing from prompts before, but even then I have to find my own particular hook for the story or it won't work. (This is a reason why, in some fandoms, I think I only have one or two stories before I'm done.) I don't know. My ability to find a way to be interested hasn't abandoned me yet.

[bay_alexison]

So last night I FINALLY got the last three chapters of my FMA Big Bang posted! Pretty much today took time off from writing, though I had been thinking a bit of what my next cottoncandy_bingo fic should be. Now with that out of the way I can focus on one of my auction fics, one in which needs one last scene but probably a bit research on.

Yesterday's discussion pretty much like most others said I write stories I would be most interested in and also ones I feel needs to be told. As for today's discussion over interests, a bit of both. There are times my interests will be known in my writings, but there are times I'll write something that is not interesting to me.

[lacerta]

Wrote about 800 words which is good. Not so good is that it's very sketchy and I didn't get very far with editing.