I read through this thread again, because it bears a striking resemblance (in emotional toll) to my Commiserate with Me thread.
One thing I'm finding really interesting, and I'm not sure I mentioned it before, but I don't have a golden idea.
You mentioned that you would put your book aside for a few months, and then character voices would haunt you. Do you really mean that? How does the story haunt you? What does it feel like, and how do you resist the temptation to answer the call, or do you answer it?
I'm sorry if that's too personal to talk about, I'm just genuinely intrigued, because for me, that has just never happened. I don't have stories that ask me to be told, or characters who are any more a part of me or my thought process than what I write on a page. If I'm not writing it or reading it, I don't think about it (except on rare occasion, when I'm doing a menial task like weeding the garden, and a solution to a plot problem or a scene lacking in emotional impact somehow becomes clear in my mind). But I just consider that is my subconscious mind always looking for solutions to problems I put on the to-do list for later.
Yeah, I joined up here in 2011, and I had a lot of novels finished already, and while I have my favorites, none of them is something I couldn't reject and stuff in a drawer forever.
I know you're looking for help, but would it derail your thread to explore what leads some writers to have a golden idea that they can't shake, and others to have almost no emotional connection to their books? I'm certainly in that second category, so I could speak on that subject, but I'm really struggling to understand what leads to the first. And my question isn't specifically aimed at any particular person. I don't want to put anyone on the spot, or anything.
One thing I'm finding really interesting, and I'm not sure I mentioned it before, but I don't have a golden idea.
You mentioned that you would put your book aside for a few months, and then character voices would haunt you. Do you really mean that? How does the story haunt you? What does it feel like, and how do you resist the temptation to answer the call, or do you answer it?
I'm sorry if that's too personal to talk about, I'm just genuinely intrigued, because for me, that has just never happened. I don't have stories that ask me to be told, or characters who are any more a part of me or my thought process than what I write on a page. If I'm not writing it or reading it, I don't think about it (except on rare occasion, when I'm doing a menial task like weeding the garden, and a solution to a plot problem or a scene lacking in emotional impact somehow becomes clear in my mind). But I just consider that is my subconscious mind always looking for solutions to problems I put on the to-do list for later.
Yeah, I joined up here in 2011, and I had a lot of novels finished already, and while I have my favorites, none of them is something I couldn't reject and stuff in a drawer forever.
I know you're looking for help, but would it derail your thread to explore what leads some writers to have a golden idea that they can't shake, and others to have almost no emotional connection to their books? I'm certainly in that second category, so I could speak on that subject, but I'm really struggling to understand what leads to the first. And my question isn't specifically aimed at any particular person. I don't want to put anyone on the spot, or anything.