First off, big news today as Amazon has released a Kindle application for the iPhone. It is, well, kind of mindblowing. I downloaded the app, signed into my Amazon account, and every book I purchased on my Kindle was instantly available to me on my iPhone. Better yet, I navigated to the book I’m currently reading and it picked up to the exact page where I had left off on my Kindle!! Wow. Wow wow. My apologies to SF Muni employees, who are probably still finding pieces of my exploded head.
Of course, I don’t find iPhones particularly easy to read on for long stretches, so I’m still glad I have a Kindle and its e-ink screen, but this will be awesome in a pinch. The main drawback is that they don’t have direct shopping through the App and you have to buy books either through your Kindle or on the Internet.
Now then. To continue positivity week: a simple question with an infinite range of possible answers.
What do you love about writing?
Jo says
It’s excruciating most of the time but I know that if I keep at it and work really really hard, eventually I’ll end up with something that I’m not ashamed of. I sort of slog through the first draft, pushing myself and psyching myself up to get it done. I enjoy revising much more than the initial putting pen to paper. Fine-tuning, moving things around, playing with the characters- that’s the fun part and the part I love. And I really enjoy working with an editor.
Dawn says
I love building characters and a world that hold what I need, or what is missing in my life. I love how real they become and that I miss those characters when I’m not writing or when the book or story is complete. I love how people respond to my stories.
Mira says
Thanks for asking this question, Nathan. It’s wonderful to have a forum to think about and express this. It’s interesting reading what other people say, too.
For me, it depends on what I’m writing – humor or something serious.
I love, love, love writing humor. I feel joy and ‘rightness with the world’ throughout my whole life when I’m writing humor. I love, love, love it. But I don’t decide when I write humor – it makes itself known to me on it’s timeline.
Serious writing comes easily, but it’s more difficult to write, and can be really painful emotionally. I don’t enjoy it. But, afterward, I love having written it. The catharsis and the sense of meaning and purpose from it is profound.
So, either way, it’s all good.
Vancouver Dame says
About writing – I love words, and the power of putting them together to tell a story, give information, or describe what’s in my thoughts. I love the process of refining and finishing writing that others enjoy reading. I like to imagine story ideas, and what people are thinking or why they do the things they do. It’s a form of art to me like painting.
It brings me pleasure to write, whether it’s on my blog, in a journal, or working on my current novel and short stories.
A good question, Nathan, and one that is near and dear to writers’ hearts. We write because we need to, because there’s something in our minds that we have to say.
Vieva says
what’s not to love?
Okay, the “business” end could be better. (I could have an agent to handle it! *g*)
But the actual butt in chair, hands on keyboard part of writing? I LOVE it. I love creating characters, I love playing with plots, I love that evil giggle when I think of something truly demented to do.
I love the feel of progress as my book advances, page by page and chapter by chapter, as my characters are chased through to a finale and then given their happy ending. (yes, I’m a sucker for a happy ending. so sue me).
I love hefting the final manuscript and knowing I did this.
and I REALLY love having people ask me for more! π
Kate says
Making up stories isn’t an optional activity for me. Maybe I’m crazy cause no matter how hard I try, I can’t turn off the voices in my head. It’s not so much that I like writing. I just live in my own personal fiction and writing is more socially acceptable than wandering the streets talking to myself.
Melissa McInerney says
How else can I release all the monsters in my head?
Kate H says
The high of getting something down and realizing you’ve really caught some infinitesimal portion of the vision in your head.
Also, in a more general way, the opportunity to express things that can’t be expressed any other way, especially if you’re as introverted as I am.
terryd says
I love falling into the dream. The nether of creation is powerful stuff, and there’s rarely a hangover. I love looking up and seeing that the clock has jumped ahead two hours – and looking back down and seeing that I’ve made progress. I love falling into stories and becoming Not-Me, god and servant both as the muse moves my hands on the keyboard to explore the strange lands of what-we-are.
Kaley says
Writing is torture. That I love it means I am more than a little sick.
David Taylor says
I love it when the story takes me in directions I didn’t plan or expect. And the place I end up is always better than where I originally planned on going.
TonyB says
Itβs simple; I write for the future.
I want my grandkids, great-grandkids, great-great-grandkids and so on, to know they came from people that thought about the times they lived in, felt the range of human emotions and pondered a future they would never see.
the Amateur Book Blogger says
I love stretching myself beyond what I already know through my research. I love discovering other peoples’ stories and seeing how most people are all basically the same the world over and looking at what makes them tick. And I love that because other people write such great stuff, I am able to read wonderful stories to my children, for my entertainment and my education. Thank you to all you great writers out there I enjoy reading and to all those I have still to discover!
Anonymous says
I hate writing. It is a curse. It is like alcohol or tobacco, something to get me through the day that does not involve suicide.
If you do something besides write, then for godsake, do so.
If you can even ask the question, you know very little about the writing life.
Try Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair for what it’s like being a writer.
Cam says
Things I love about writing: Having an epiphany that entirely transforms a WIP (this happened yesterday- Yay!); getting so buried in plot lines that I think they’re part of real life; when characters get minds of their own and do shocking things that I hadn’t planned for them to do; and – finally – freedom of expression as a form of stress relief.
p.s. I saw a DOUBLE rainbow today when the clouds parted during an East Bay rain shower. Let me know if you want the picture I took. π
Kristy Colley says
Mary Doria Russell sort of hit it on the head in an interview with Krista Tippet. The Novelist as God. Doesn’t that just say it all?
Ink says
I love the moment the world disappears, when my eyes no longer see and ears no longer hear, and there’s only a dream, a dream so vivid it swallows me into bright waters and I drown without drowning, carried on shifting images like false memories, carried to a world that exists only in my own head and yet clamors for release, a story that speaks a strange and beautiful language translatable only through the soft patter of my fingers upon well-worn keys. I love words that are like windows on this world, words that I can use to peak in on the story and that allow the story to peak out at me and sometimes climb through as if there were no walls between worlds. I love that when I come back from that dream it lingers, it haunts and changes me, it makes something new of me.
And I love, too, that writing is hard. I love the difficulty. I love the difficulty because easy things are boring and writing well is never easy. I love that I can spend my whole life chasing the donkey and never quite pin the tail on perfectly. I love that I will have to try again. Once more and again.
My best,
Bryan Russell
Yvette Davis says
The idea that, in the end, the finished project and the only tangible connection between the writer and reader is black ink forming letters and words on a page.
reader says
abc– thank you for the David Foster Wallace quote. I am a big fan of his.
It’s why I read and why I write — to feel less alone.
lotusgirl says
Wow!! That Kindle iPhone thing is SO cool! Especially that it picks right up where you left off on your Kindle. How do they do that? My brain is just reeling.
My favorite part about writing is creating the characters. No one can be perfect. Everyone is flawed. Complex. Good characters and evil alike.
FYI: I did a book review today of The Book Thief which I read per your suggestion. Just thought you might like to know. I’m still stunned at how completely compelling that book is.
Marla Taviano says
I love it when words start flowing through my pen (or onto my computer screen), and I have no idea where they’re coming from. And then, when I re-read them, they’re brilliant.
If only this happened more often.
My husband put his iPhone in my face this morning, and I was about to get irritated when I saw the cover of my book, Is That All He Thinks About. What?!?!? I don’t have a Kindle, but now I can read the first chapters of a ton of books whenever I want. Wheeeee!
Marla Taviano says
Hubby says you can buy books through your iPhone. He’s a Mac geek, so I believe him.
https://www.godsmac.com
Kimberly Lynn says
Inventing characters and their unique worlds.
Love doing research, too!
Anonymous says
I love writing something and then listening to other’s responses to it, especially when they find layers of meaning that I didn’t know were there. Then I am reassured that my book or story is smarter than I am.
Anonymous says
I love meeting other writers and knowing that I am one of them now. They are my peers.
I can finally, finally, finally eat lunch with the popular kids.
Eden says
I love watching as the story unfolds. I often don’t know the end point or I only have a vague idea. I like watching the characters develop and watching things come together.
Briony says
Having a vague idea for a character and then fleshing it out. Creating characters is the best bit for me π
Lisa says
I love that it comes naturally to me but is still so damn hard and gives me endless opportunities to grow.
Luisa Perkins says
I’m delurking to post a brief excerpt from my blog in answer to your question.
“No one is able to enjoy such feast as the one who throws a party in his own mind.”–Selma LagerlΓΆf, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1909
This quote perfectly describes the reason why I continue to write despite such distractions as a romantic husband, six adventurous children, a busy church life, and several absorbing hobbies. The party in my mind keeps pulling me back.
Conjurae says
I love the taunting challenge of that arrogant little blinking cursor of a blank page.
Meg says
I love telling stories.
Vodka Mom says
What do I love about writing? I LOVE to make myself laugh.
yep. And I particularly love it when I watch someone else read what I wrote – and hear THEM laugh! That’s the best sound ever. (well, except for maybe the sound of an agent calling me. That MIGHT be better than that…)
Karen says
I love creating characters that somewhere along the line take on a life all of their own and practically start typing the story themselves. That’s number one. Number two — I love when someone reads my story or book, and I can see when they are done, that I have entertained them. No greater reward.
Anonymous says
The fame and fortune.
Oh, wait…. nevermind.
Stephanie Faris says
Being able to create an entire world from thin air. And the pride of typing the words “The End” at the end of 400 pages of blood, sweat, and tears.
Indam says
It is the most satisfying form of mental masturbation….
D.A.A. Price (aka Elgin) says
It’s all about the glamor. The glamor and the money. Make that glamor, money, and the chicks. Yeah, glamor, money, chicks, and the fame. Yeah, that’s it, glamor, money, chicks, fame, and the wild Hollywood parties. God, what is there not to like about being a writer.
Anyone tells you that it’s a window to your soul, that it’s a way to connect to the energy of the Universe and that there’s no greater high than creating something that might in some small way make the planet a better place to live, don’t believe for them for one hot minute.
It’s all about the glamor.
Franny Armstrong says
It’s like bringing your heart and mind together and throwing all the adventure and intrigue you’ve built up over the years of watching TV and going to the movies together then making your OWN stories.
I call them my babies because they are the very heart of me.
I love being lost in my characters and knowing that no matter what happens, they’ll have a happily ever after.
Franny Armstrong
Being Beth says
I love telling a story – the first time it’s told – writing that first draft.
Kerry Gans says
I love the characters–they become real people, and do things I never expected. Sometimes when I’m writing, I know I’m making them do something out of character, because they practically turn and look at me and say, “You want me to do what?”!
I also love that moment when you know you nailed something. I call it “the click”–as in everything has fallen into place with a click like a jigsaw puzzle. When I feel that click, I know not to mess with it anymore.
And sometimes, I go back and read something I wrote, and say, “Hey, this is good! It’s like a professional wrote this!” Then I realize that professional was me.
I love it!
Eileen Wiedbrauk says
Storytelling. Making people believe. Taking a total stranger and sharing with them the worlds inside my mind as they were the moment I wrote down the words. It’s the best — the only — sort of alchemy there is; with only words on the page I can transport you through time and space to share a moment with me and who knows how many others.
Liz says
Don’t forget to also check Stanza, the free iPhone reader app by Lexcycle. My geek friends prefer it.
Re what I like about writing:
Where to begin. There’s the immediate endorphins from engaging in creative activity. Then the delight of discovery as the story emerges. The surprising dark places that the story takes you that you didn’t know you were going to go. I guess this sounds a lot like reading a good book, but when you’re writing it you feel it living in your head. The characters are sorting themselves out in your head. My husband and I talked about how much JK Rowling must have missed the characters after finishing the HP series. Now I know she doesn’t miss them – they’re still in her head, going about their lives. What’s hard is stopping telling their stories.
If I’m being honest, I also like the I Am God quality of writing fiction. I have to be true to the characters, but I can throw things at them at will. I can give them motivations and histories and tics and issues. I can put them in harm’s way and make them forget something crucial until it’s too late. And then figure out how they still rise above anyway. It’s an amazing thing.
Whirlochre says
I can summon anything from thin air and hint it into the material cosmos.
Michelle Miles says
Creating the vision of my world through words; exciting and inpiring others to do the same.
I can’t live without writing.
Teri says
What I love about writing: The sort of “high” you get from it. It takes you over and your in for the ride of your life. Exciting, awe-inspiring, and breath-taking all at once.
Horserider says
My favorite part of writing is the high I get when I finish something or even when I’m on a writing roll that keeps me up until 1 am even though I have to get up early the next morning. It’s a wonderful feeling just watching the words flow onto the page in front of me.
Jen says
I actually used to dislike the actual act of writing. I always loved inventing ideas and creating worlds, writing outlines and what not, but I stalled whenever I sat down to write. Happily, I have discovered the joy of writing. This probably comes from being older and less worried about life in general. I know now that what I write doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to get the draft down on paper so that I can go back and revise later.
As far as it goes, I love everything about writing. There could not be a more perfect occupation for me. I am a highly creative person and need to constantly channel that to keep me sane. I love words and language and could play with them for eternity. I love imagination and the creation of new things. I am perfectly comfortable spending most of my time alone (total hermit!).
I have had a lot of ideas of what I would like to do for an occupation over the years, but always it just comes back to writing.
Griffin Asher says
I love creating my own worlds, building them detail by detail until I have a whole new place to explore and learn. I love following my characters through this newly created world and growing with them through their struggles. Being able to disappear into this world when real life seems overwhelming. To know that there is a light at the end of tunnel because I put it there with a hope for a better future.
And if there is a hope in that world, then just maybe there’s a hope in the real one as well.
Laura D says
I love pushing the parameters of the artform. Trying to come up with something new is difficult, but a quest for me nonetheless. Sometimes it’s as simple as combining genres or being more avant garde (however it’s spelled, I do love spell check!)than what I’ve read. Pushing boundaries is what gets me up in the morning and keeps me excited about creating stories.
Anonymous says
“What do I love about writing?”
It is the single greatest form of solitude without seclusion.
Morgan