Joy of Creativity
The sheer joy of creating something from nothing and knowing this work is uniquely yours. Your characters have their own lives and you find yourself rooting for them. If you are caught up in your work and believe it, there’s every chance others will do so. If you can’t believe it, nobody else will. Producing something that is creative (and in general terms creativity is a good thing both for the individual and to society – a society that doesn’t appreciate its arts tends to have lots of other, nastier problems to deal with too).
Escapism
Being taken away from the pains and trials of this world as you create your own characters and situation. Writing can be amazing therapy. Taking me out of “real life” as there are times I physically feel the need for that.
Being Published
Seeing your work in print or on the web and getting good feedback (good in terms of useful criticism and, yes, some praise is nice but beware the flatterer. Vanity presses always flatter).
Completing the First Draft and the Joy of Editing
Getting the first draft down and then improving it by cutting out what’s not needed and knowing the story really is much better. I get a lot of satisfaction out of that and it improves the chances of publication no end!
Writing Leads to Enjoying Reading More
Enjoying well written how-to-write books as I learn a lot from all of them! I particularly love reading interviews with other authors as they explain what works for them. It’s encouraging when you realise you’re finding the same things work for you. – Enjoying the subtle phrase, oblique references (Terry Pratchett’s especially good at these) and hopefully getting to write some too! It’s a bit like finally cracking the cryptic crossword when you come up with good oblique references of your own that you know others who read reasonably well will get.
Cutting and Pasting
Cut and paste is so much easier to do on PC, as is keeping an accurate word count! I can remember doing these tasks manually and that way is tedious to say the least. Cutting and pasting material can strengthen your writing as no writer writes everything in the correct order all at once. Having to move material is inevitable.
Stories Coming to Life
When my stories and characters come to life and seem almost as real as “real” people, I receive a great deal of satisfaction as if knowing I’m writing “properly”, I’m “doing it right” as such characters need to “catch on”. If I can’t convince myself, I’ll have a hard job selling the book to anyone else.
Knowing My Writing is Unique to Me
Knowing this is something I am doing. Nobody can write my stories in exactly the same way so even if someone had the same ideas as me, the way they’d write the works out would be different. While not meaning to be an egocentric, it is nice to know there is something I do that’s unique to me.
The sheer joy of creating something from nothing and knowing this work is uniquely yours. Your characters have their own lives and you find yourself rooting for them. If you are caught up in your work and believe it, there’s every chance others will do so. If you can’t believe it, nobody else will. Producing something that is creative (and in general terms creativity is a good thing both for the individual and to society – a society that doesn’t appreciate its arts tends to have lots of other, nastier problems to deal with too).
Escapism
Being taken away from the pains and trials of this world as you create your own characters and situation. Writing can be amazing therapy. Taking me out of “real life” as there are times I physically feel the need for that.
Being Published
Seeing your work in print or on the web and getting good feedback (good in terms of useful criticism and, yes, some praise is nice but beware the flatterer. Vanity presses always flatter).
Completing the First Draft and the Joy of Editing
Getting the first draft down and then improving it by cutting out what’s not needed and knowing the story really is much better. I get a lot of satisfaction out of that and it improves the chances of publication no end!
Writing Leads to Enjoying Reading More
Enjoying well written how-to-write books as I learn a lot from all of them! I particularly love reading interviews with other authors as they explain what works for them. It’s encouraging when you realise you’re finding the same things work for you. – Enjoying the subtle phrase, oblique references (Terry Pratchett’s especially good at these) and hopefully getting to write some too! It’s a bit like finally cracking the cryptic crossword when you come up with good oblique references of your own that you know others who read reasonably well will get.
Cutting and Pasting
Cut and paste is so much easier to do on PC, as is keeping an accurate word count! I can remember doing these tasks manually and that way is tedious to say the least. Cutting and pasting material can strengthen your writing as no writer writes everything in the correct order all at once. Having to move material is inevitable.
Stories Coming to Life
When my stories and characters come to life and seem almost as real as “real” people, I receive a great deal of satisfaction as if knowing I’m writing “properly”, I’m “doing it right” as such characters need to “catch on”. If I can’t convince myself, I’ll have a hard job selling the book to anyone else.
Knowing My Writing is Unique to Me
Knowing this is something I am doing. Nobody can write my stories in exactly the same way so even if someone had the same ideas as me, the way they’d write the works out would be different. While not meaning to be an egocentric, it is nice to know there is something I do that’s unique to me.
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