Thread: Where, how, in what way do you acquire enthusiasm for writing?

I frequently lack the enthusiasm to write and wondered where you get yours from. What is it that gets you going?

When I see other people's comments I wonder if I am a bit strange, I enjoy it.

An idea that would make a great story.

A deadline.

Talking to other writers.

Having free time! (this doesn't happen much).

I find the act itself fun, creating scenes and characters and worlds. The prospect of feedback and seeing how people react as well.

Originally Posted by Foxee

Talking to other writers.

IRL or online?

Originally Posted by The Backward OX

IRL or online?

IRL, on the phone, or online. As long as I can focus on the discussion and it's a good discussion where we're swapping a lot of ideas or following possible rabbit trails of thought it helps.

Beer works for me. Though, after 3 the ideas get weirder and the writing gets illegibler....

I don't understand the question.

garza - You & I inhabit totally different worlds. When I was conceived, someone forgot to include the drive mechanism. Consequently I’ve lived a life bedevilled by lethargy and apathy, in which it seems difficult to generate much genuine long-term enthusiasm for anything…

Writing helps me break free from the cruel reality, even for just a short, tentative while. It makes me busy, and engrossed, and amazed, and stressed, all at the same time, so much so that I can only think of what will happen next to the guy who had visited another planet using a self-made shuttle...

It relieves stress, for me. Sometimes I just have do get something out of me, be it a character, an idea, a bit of dialogue, anything. Once it's there on the page, or on the screen, even if it's a pile of crap, there's a sort of. . .release, and it just feels great. I guess I find the enthusiasm to write by wanting to feel that sensation again and again, and I keep coming back like some sort of word-junkie for my fix.

Creation in itself is satisfying. When you create a piece of artwork, a painting, a novel, whatever, it's like "Right, okay, it's out of my system, I've done that; what's next?". I get an adrenaline rush from it.

I want to do it. . .or, more honestly, I feel I have to do it, because there're so many possibilities in any artistic medium, and that drives me on, just to see what I'm capable of. Not out of arrogance, but out of curiosity.

Clambering for my notebook in the dark, trying desperately to write down that one idea that just punched me in the face before it slips away forever. It's kinda exhilarating .

That's what gets me going. Putting what I was born with (my head) to good use, and wondering what it'll come up with. I think I fear that too, sometimes. I've discovered different sides to my personality that just didn't exist before. Writing the fates of others is empowering.

I don't know if it's the same for non-fiction writers, but that's what I think/feel.

If you have to ask, maybe you should just give it up.

I go to the bookstore. I wander down the isles and look at all the names on spines and think one day mine might be there. For some strange reason the more books an authour has the more it inspires me.

I am also inspired by bad books. Its easy belive you can write well when you read bad. But I generally don't seek motivation that way, generally not worth the effort of reading a bad book.

Originally Posted by The Backward OX

I frequently lack the enthusiasm to write and wondered where you get yours from. What is it that gets you going?

By thinking about a topic, about its significance. Also by talking about it (with myself and with others).

Ludwik
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Yeah, deadlines work best for me.

Otherwise at the start I'm writing thousands of words a day because I have a great idea, at the end I'm writing thousands of words a day because I'm almost finished, and in the middle I hate the thing and just want to get it over with so I can move on to the next great idea.