I saw something in another thread that inspired this question and I wasn't sure if someone else had already posted it so please feel free to ignore this is they have...
But I'm procrastinating... again... before writing the last of my daily quote... okay, so I'm not so much procrastinating as trying to delay the inevitable and well... stalling... So anyway, what does writing mean to you?
For me, writing is my life. Nothing beats the feeling of having written something and feeling proud of what you have written... except maybe the knowledge that someone else likes what you've written as well. Writing is a passion and an addiction, it is a gift that would break my heart to give up, it's a knowledge that I can pass onto others, a lesson that I can learn from others and a dream that I can share with many. It's a way of making sense of the stories and thoughts inside my head, it's a way of trying to explain those stories and thoughts to others.
...that's only just a few things.... So instead of me rambling on forever... what does it mean to you?
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50,520 / 50,000
Nov 20, 2008 - 15 53
I completely agree with you. Writing is life. It's like breathing for me. While I do go on hiatus sometimes because of Enali [my main muse] going on strike, it's somethign I can always come back to during the stressful times of life. It's one of my greatest outlets for stress and it helps me to cope with life. Even if I write a crappy, two page story where a character is describing how her relationship with her parents is horrible or somebody dealing with a bully, it's one of the best ways to cope with the day-to-day wear and tear of life.
----------NaNo08: Shadowed Fates.
Not sure what the title has to do with much of anything right now, but I like it 8D
50,345 / 50,000
Nov 22, 2008 - 09 23
When I write, it's because I have something to say. Sometimes I don't write anything for a long time, but I tend to write when I want to tell people something. I'm writing my nano novel for a friend who is having a bad year <3
75,028 / 50,000
Nov 22, 2008 - 09 58
Oh... writing for me is my high. Not only is it a fun passtime, but it's how I express myself...
Other than that, the first post pretty much summed it up for me ^__^
----------My life is saved on the hard drive of my computer!
75,075 / 50,000
Nov 22, 2008 - 10 09
For me, writing is my life. Nothing beats the feeling of having written something and feeling proud of what you have written... except maybe the knowledge that someone else likes what you've written as well. Writing is a passion and an addiction, it is a gift that would break my heart to give up, it's a knowledge that I can pass onto others, a lesson that I can learn from others and a dream that I can share with many. It's a way of making sense of the stories and thoughts inside my head, it's a way of trying to explain those stories and thoughts to others.
That's exaclty how I feel. Writing isn't just my creative outlet, it is my life. I'm one of those people who wants people to know what she's thinking and how she feels, and with writing, that's my way of expressing my thoughts and feelings without completely boring people (I hope). I've always entertained myself as a kid by coming up with crazy stories, and now that I can write them down, I feel so much better because I can let other people read these crazy stories as well. I don't know if that made much sense, but oh well. Writing=life. It's basically all I want to do in life. Write, write, write.
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Sure, I get lost in my own little world a lot...but at least I like to invite people in.
----------Sure, I get lost in my own little world a lot... but at least I invite people in.
37,595 / 50,000
Nov 22, 2008 - 11 05
It's kinda hard to explain why I write...I just do.
No writing = no Tandra. No decent, likable Tandra, anyway.
I guess the first post pretty much summed it up for me. I write because I have something to say, because it helps me deal with how I feel and how I see the world, and it is what I just like to do.
....
----------Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia. ~E.L. Doctorow
50,903 / 50,000
Nov 22, 2008 - 11 35
writing=life
It is what I get up for in the morning, and what keeps me up until past mid night. I live in my stories, I act them, I tell them, I dream them. When I have to kill a character, I get depressed, and when they're happy, the pages just flow out. I love writing, I love my characters, I cry when they do, and I love telling their story. Sometimes it sucks if I have a beautiful scene and it comes out all crappy, but that's life, and I have to go with it.
65,225 / 50,000
Nov 22, 2008 - 14 16
I'd be lying if I said writing was my life. Writing was a dream. One that took root in my heart when I was a pre-teen. It was an outlet for strong emotions and I used poetry and fiction writing to express myself.
My life now is my husband and my five kids. Relationships, people and connecting with each other.
But, writing is my passion. I may have taken fourteen years off, but the desire to write and the stories were always there. Now that my children are getting older, I have more time. My husband is the one who suggested I start writing again.
I have goals and dreams concerning my writing and I feel like they are in reach now. And it's really exciting!
----------Dawnofme
http://dawnofme.livejournal.com
This is an Image
50,026 / 50,000
Nov 22, 2008 - 16 10
Well, I suppose I really could say writing is my life, but I don't know that I mean it the way most people do when they say things like that. I mean that writing is something that is a common thread when it comes to pretty much every aspect of my life as I know it. These days writing is not only my number one way of expressing myself, but it's also the way I make a living and the way I unwind at the end of the day. I don't necessarily get this magical transcendent feeling that a lot of you seem to get when you sit down to write, but I do feel I would be quite crippled in many ways if I was somehow no longer able to do it.
This is kind of an odd thing for me to realize, because I don't know that my writing talent was ever anything I took all that seriously. I was always that kid that could churn out A+ essays and research papers on any subject without thinking about it, but I was also someone that could effortlessly think up these really great characters, worlds, and storylines. I guess I knew I was a good writer, but although I enjoy writing, I never was really all that passionate about it. (I guess I always considered visual art to be my "thing".)
My life started to revolve around writing completely by accident. I had gotten into blogging at one point just because I liked the idea of having a virtual journal that never ran out of pages. I never did it to connect with other people or with the intention of anyone else really caring about it, so I was pretty surprised when others were actually interested in reading what I was writing.
Something similar happened when I started doing things like writing informative articles and whatnot just... for fun, and to share some of my extraneous knowledge with the rest of the web. I never expected to have anything I wrote purchased by publishers or anything, but it was. From there on, I guess I felt inspired to start taking my writing more seriously and the rest is history.
----------Visit My Website -- Add Me On MySpace - My Tips for Surviving (and Winning) NaNo
50,230 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2008 - 16 16
Writing means never having to say "I wish there was a book about...."
----------><> ><> ><> ><> ><> ><>
2004: Unday: WON -- 2005: Fortune's Fool: WON -- 2007: Hench: WON -- 2008: The Wey of Dolor: WON
50,793 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2008 - 17 12
Agreed. :)
2006 - Openbaar Vervoer - 22 500 / 50 000
----------2007 - Canhoto - 24 947 / 50 000
2006 - Openbaar Vervoer - 22 500 / 50 000
2007 - Canhoto - 24 947 / 50 000
50,357 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2008 - 20 11
Writing is where my extra feelings go. It's a form of therapy, a form of release. And when you're in 'the zone,' there's nothing like it.
----------Between you and me and the lamp post
Between this living hell and the great unknown...
48,125 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2008 - 21 22
To me writing is –
Frustrating, until I discovered that I actually have talent.
Heartbreaking, for the things I put characters through.
Lonely, a solitary pursuit.
Endless, because I rarely finish a story. Only the one’s that survive procrastination are worth pursuing.
Holding myself to a higher standard than most of the books I’ve read and movies I’ve seen. If I find a character or plot boring – out it goes. If a scene doesn’t give needed background, develop a character, or move the plot along – out it goes. I only want the gold not the dross.
53,236 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2008 - 21 50
Writing, for me at least, is a way of telling people what's going on in my head. It's a way of telling the story of the voices instead of letting their lives go meaningless. It's taking all these bunnies carrying plots around and putting them to good use.
It's a pass time, a love, and a future career. And though I'm told to write for myself and not others, it's a way to be recognized instead of be invisible as I have been throughout my entire life. It's a way for me, one with such a low self esteem, to appreciate myself.
Writing is a passion, and something that will endure through my life even if other things don't. It's something I refuse to give up, and something that will always remain part of me. It might not be my life, since I have people that are my life, people that I care about more than anything, but it still has a spot in my heart that nothing can replace.
I've always had these voices in my head since I was a lonely kid... my siblings are all much older than me, and I was always the little kid of the family. So I developed things to say, people to talk about, stories to tell... Through writing, I can finally achieve that. The baby of the family finally speaking out, and finally being heard.
----------Dance, you're a writer!
(>^-^)>
^(^-^)^
<(^-^<)
v(^-^)v
50,546 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2008 - 22 37
Writing is a means of proving to myself that I am not a total loser, with my boring office job and lack of any redeeming qualities. Whatever happens, at least I manage to come up with stories, even though nobody wants to read them.
----------商店街の谷間に、ささやかな水音が響く。
78,739 / 50,000
Nov 24, 2008 - 00 41
To me, writing means feeding my superiority complex by playing god via creating worlds and characters and then destroying them.
58,520 / 50,000
Nov 24, 2008 - 06 04
I love words. Always have.
I can't tell stories--oral ones, anyway--if you ask me to tell you a story based on a picture, I will sit and stare at it and nothing will come out of my mouth.
But ever since I discovered how to read words and spell words and put words together, I've done it. And loved it.
----------There's always someone left to fight.
50,308 / 50,000
Nov 24, 2008 - 07 16
Writing and Art go hand in hand for me. I love creating things, telling stories, inventing characters, melding words together like melding colos together to have something come out in the end. It may be beautiful or it may be imperfect, but it always reflects some part of me.
I used to write all the time. I would spend hours and hours writing, and it came easily. For the last two years I've felt choked as far as writing goes, though. I have not even been able to keep up with the RPG stories I'm involved in, because I've felt too busy, tired and overwhelmed with life to really enjoy it anymore. The reason I signed up for NaNo (hearing about it in the last week of October this year) was because I was hoping that doing it would let me prove to myself that I'm still a writer, and that I can still write despite all of the things going on in my life. I must say, I've felt more alive creativly this month than I have in a long, long time. =)
I'm going to keep writing... and that's going to feed my soul. ^_^
----------I walked outside beneath the sun and saw a peaceful tree
I stopped to study it and found, it also studied me!
55,234 / 50,000
Nov 24, 2008 - 11 44
For me writing is the best way to make sense of my crazy and out-of-order mind. There's too much infor for me to process. Too much for me to remember. So i write, never to forget.
----------It happaned when I decided to join NaNoWriMo this year. I thought "Which of my stories will I be writing". I had no idea! There were too many! So I read every summary I ever wrote and selected the best. Then it was by elimination. This is one is probably too short for 50 000, that one I already started, so it's a no-go,. And so on!
All this thanks to my usual urge to alwyas write every title idea that comes to head. And I mean everything! Sometimes I have ideas on the side of a paper filled with writing. I'm insane! And I love to hand-write. there's nothing like the feeling of pen on paper. Though, novels, I write on the computer. It's more oprganized and neat.
I have to say though, it's not that uncommon for me to hand-write a story and then fully type it in the computer.
Writing for me is like breathing!
Need it in order to survive!
Organizando o emaranhado da minha vida vejo-me rodeado por teias que eu própria teci. Quanto mais me mexo, mais presa fico. Cortar os fios seria o mesmo que ferir parte de mim. Que fazer então?
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v197/DreamGazer-Night
89,166 / 50,000
Nov 24, 2008 - 13 21
What does writing mean to me? What does breathing mean to you? It's about the same. Whether I want to do it or not, it consumes me. I use writing as a tool to keep me from bordom (I get bored easily) in the winter and an excuse to stay in the AC in the summer. Writing is a means to release all those thoughts that race through my head day and night.
--------------
----------Holiday special on my book Blood Forsaken. Visit the Online Store, enter the discount code MPXQMVDJ at check out, andget 25% off the cover price!
Holiday special on my book Blood Forsaken. Visit the Online Store, enter the discount code MPXQMVDJ at check out, andget 25% off the cover price!
57,269 / 50,000
Nov 25, 2008 - 04 51
I write because it's like breathing...I can't live without it!
----------We write because we love to write...the insanity is extra free!
50,198 / 50,000
Nov 25, 2008 - 07 13
For me, writing is very much an escape. I find reality a bit hard to deal with sometimes, especially since I'm so very, very shy (I'm not the crack a lame joke every now and then socially awkward type, but the serious, have trouble making eye contact kind of shy). I wouldn't say that writing is my life, but it is a very big part of who I am. I feel far more comfortable and confident expressing myself through the written word than through speaking, and I find the characters in my head far easier to talk to than people in RL... geez, do I have issues or what? o.O
----------Life would be so much better with a plot.
50,083 / 50,000
Nov 25, 2008 - 10 12
Writing is my way of saying things the way I want people to hear it. Public speaking I'm good at, too, but when I'm just having everyday conversations with people, they misinterpret me all the time. Or maybe they just don't like listening. But I've always loved listening, and I can't stop listening, which is probably one way I notice so many things about people that I can use for characters and such. I don't see how people can go about not listening. It's so interesting and makes you feel less like everything's about yourself. Writing separates me from myself, too, and I can get just as involved in it as I can with what I'm reading or listening to. Something inexplicable about listening and writing connects them. I'm not sure what it is, but I know that I need both. And music, too. I definitely need all three. It's about communication.
And, reading that, it barely makes sense, but I'm afraid that if I let my inner editor out of the closet he's going to end my 6000-words-a-day-until-the-end-of-November.
----------I wrote 1131 words in 30 minutes with Dr. Wicked's "Write or Die."
You can, too.
60,369 / 50,000
Nov 25, 2008 - 12 42
I can't really say writing is like breathing for me (for one, it's not as effortless). I could live without it. But the important thing, I think, is that I wouldn't want to. I've been doing it for as long as I can remember, and stopping would be losing a vital part of mysef. I don't write to explain what's in my head. I don't write to show people what I'm thinking. I write because I love it, and I love to see my characters living, breathing on the page. Selfish? Sure! =D And I love it.
----------I do not know beneath what sky nor on what seas shall be thy fate.
I only know it shall be high; I only know it shall be great.
50,000 / 50,000
Nov 25, 2008 - 16 04
Writing is like an escape for me. It's not my life, it's not really my dream. But it's nice to have around because any time I get bored or depressed about my life I start distracting myself by coming up with scenes, what-ifs, and scenarios.
My current story came from me trying to replay the movie "Live Free Or Die Hard" in my head after seeing it the week before. I came up with my version of the movie, kind of correcting the small mistakes I thought they made. And then I started writing a similar one with characters that I could relate more to. And then it just kept transforming into the story I'm writing now.
And, if that seems like it was totally off-topic I'm sorry.
----------So, yeah - writing means an escape. Or a release. It depends on what exactly it is that I'm writing.
~*~
"If I'm so happy - I've got everything to lose. And now it's always raining - you're the one to blame"
-- 'I Want To Hear What You've Got To Say' by the Subways
50,047 / 50,000
Nov 25, 2008 - 19 04
Writing is life, it allows me to make seance of the world and put that understanding into something that just might be appreciated by others. Writing is my means of potentially making a difference to people's lives with my words.
50,035 / 50,000
Nov 25, 2008 - 19 21
It's everything. It's one of the things that allows me to get up each morning without going batty over how horrible the world can be. It's the greatest joy.
----------Sir Mordred was framed!
65,908 / 50,000
Nov 25, 2008 - 20 03
I can't draw, paint, sculpt, carve, build things, bead, make jewelery...but all my life I have fet this terrifying, overwhelming, heartbreaking urge to Create.
Writing, as someone above me said, satisfies my god complex.
Books are the only solid, tangible things (besides food and water, don't get smart with me) that I don't think I could live without. I couldn't live with myself if I wasn't part of that world.
52,996 / 50,000
Nov 25, 2008 - 22 40
I wouldn't say that writing is my life (that's music), but it's an important part of my life.
I got started writing fanfiction in 2000 when I was 13. From there, I experimented with poetry, then with original fiction and was published twice in my high school literature magazine. At my old college, I became a news reporter for the campus newspaper before our faculty advisor realized I had a talent for Op/Ed and book reviews, so I then became the paper's regular columnist and book reviewer. I'm quite pleased to say that two of my op/ed articles brought about major changes at my old college.
In the creative sense, writing is a form of artistic expression, more so than my music, my drawing, or my photography. I like creating something new, something that's only ever existed in my head. Of course, I always feel exceptionally proud of myself when I finish something, and while I'm actually writing, I love the range of emotions I experience through the characters and the situations they're in. It's also relaxing, especially when I'm writing a particularly intense scene.
As for my ventures in journalism, I don't think I'll ever go that route again. Deadlines are fine, I have no problem with those, but I don't like the restrictions and the disagreements I might have with editors. I never had a problem with the first three editors of the paper (the editor's term is 1 year, because the editor was also the president of the Campus Journalists club), but our last editor we had before I left did things that drove me to distraction. When that happened, I just lost my love of writing.
Writing isn't very cathartic for me, though. That's why music is my life. I can't live without music, much less write. Writing is very stressful, but if I have music going, I'm able to relax a little.
----------"I reject your reality and substitute my own!" ~Adam Savage from Mythbusters
2007: The Guardian Angel (lost)
2008: Sacrifice (won)
50,967 / 50,000
Nov 25, 2008 - 23 18
Fun thread. Let's see... for me, writing is this thing that I do. Whether I want to or not, I sit down and do it. It's like keeping up with an exercise routine.
Sounds kind of weird and dismissive, I know, but I honestly have to think of it as something commonplace and more or less routine so I don't start getting too nervous about whether or not my prose is good enough, my thoughts profound enough, and my characters complex enough. Know what I mean?
For me, writing is about sitting my butt down in the chair. On a good day, when things are easy, it's a lot fun. On a bad day, when the words come like molasses and I want to throw my Neo out the window, it usually still is a lot of fun. :) Once I get through the rough spots, at least.
50,121 / 50,000
Nov 25, 2008 - 23 35
Everything
----------Pam
"Three Rings Into The River" NaNoWriMo 2008