(no subject)

[severity_softly]

Got up this morning and my car wouldn't start, even though I hadn't left lights on or anything. Got the husband to jump start, except that when the fourth connection on the jumper cables got hooked up, my alarm went off. Whoa. Freaked me out a little. Jumping any car makes me really nervous, as my dad told me ages ago that if it's done wrong it can cause major issues, but my car has all these safety features built in (like not letting me lock the doors with a spare key when the other key is in the ignition--gee, thanks for not letting me warm up my car before I drive to work in the frozen ass winter--among other less trivial things), so I took that as a warning not to try anything more. Good thing is, the car is still under warranty. Got a free tow to the dealer because of it; they checked it and say it IS the battery that's died. They're charging me for checking it since the battery isn't under warranty, but it's less than half what diagnostics had ever cost me anywhere else and it's much better than it could have been. And there were parts recalled for my car that I didn't know about, so those are getting taken care of too. *shrugs* Fair enough. Missed a day of work and the money for my contact lenses is going to a battery now, but whatever. I'll reside under these glasses for a bit longer. Would have been nice to have been able to sleep in though, since I was home anyway. ;)

Randomly, Bear Grylls is still one sexy mofo, even with his face all swollen up and drinking his own urine from a snake skin.

Annnnd, in other thoughts, you all know how on occasion I can just babble about writing. So I have a general topic today, and I'd love to hear your thoughts:

Is it bad/wrong/weird/silly/stupid to get so emotionally involved in things you're writing that you actually cry when you're writing the "sad" parts, or have some other strong emotional reaction to some part of the fic? Has a fic you're writing ever significantly effected your general mood for the moment/day/week? How much is too much/over-investing? We all know that under-investment in a piece of writing can seriously effect the fic negatively, but do you feel like over-investment can do the same? Can over-investing can cause you to lose sight of characterization, or other Major Important Things? Discuss. :)

Comments

[mnemosyne-1.livejournal.com]

Opinions? I has those... ;)

I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to get involved with what you're writing - I wrote a scene where Fred died, and I was so wrapped up in the character's perspective (Percy) that I got all choked up. I didn't even get choked up when I read Fred's death in DH! But immersing myself in Percy's mind/mindset for the fic caused a much more emotional reaction.

However, I do think that you need to be careful about becoming overinvested. First, I think it can become easier to lose sight of the characterization, and get so caught up in the moment that you make the characters do OOC things just because it works with the scene that you've become invested in. A good beta should be able to catch that.

Also, I think it is probably not a good thing that it affect your mood too much - I mean, it's good to be excited about fic, but if you're depressed for days after writing a sad part, that's a problem emotionally-speaking (rather than fic-wise). But reading about bad and sad things can (and does) affect us - I've choked up at a moving part in a book before... so I think it's okay if it sometimes happens in your writing. But if it feels like the bad things are happening to you instead of just affecting your, then that would probably be bad.

I do think that being over-invested could affect the fic badly, in that it can be very hard to take criticism of it, whether it's from a beta or from a neutral commenter. Being too overinvested and not wanting to change sections of the fic that your beta suggests working on can definitely lead to the fic being of a lesser quality. That's not to say that the beta is always right, but over-involvement can lead to the writer being more dismissive of the beta's thoughts - and if that happens, what's the point of having a beta in the first place?

So pretty much - investing in a fic doesn't have to be a bad thing, but overinvesting would be some of the points I've listed above. I think that you just have to keep an eye on yourself and make sure you step back sometimes and try to separate yourself from the character.

[severity-softly.livejournal.com]

LOL - oh, yes, I agree. There IS certainly something wrong emotionally if something you write/read effects you for too long. Sometimes, though, I know at least for me, that can be totally hormonal. That time of the month? The lingering effects can, ah, linger for a while. >.> Usually, though, something will effect me while I'm writing it, and then I'm okay once I walk away. I've just been writing a sad scene with IS for the past two days (and thank god it's finally over, because JEEZE I was getting tired of feeling weepy whenever I sat down to write), and it got me wondering how much other people invest as well. I also find I react more to RPGs and RPG style writing, as typically, in the past, those are the times that I've gotten the most worked up.

Being too overinvested and not wanting to change sections of the fic that your beta suggests working on can definitely lead to the fic being of a lesser quality.

That's a good point I hadn't thought of! :) I think I'm typically almost always willing to listen--and usually I can tell, if a beta says that to me, that okay, yeah, I night have gotten swept away. :P Ah, it happens. *G* A lot of writers are very defensive about criticism in general though, and I wonder how much of that is experience and how much of that is emotional investment. I used to get much more upset when people offered crit when I was a new writer, and I know I used to get more emotionally invested in the long-term than I do now (because, and I know this will come as a shock, I'm not as perfect as I thought I was, and I now allow for the possibility that other people whos opinions I trust can see things more objectively than I can).

[/rambling]

[mnemosyne-1.livejournal.com]

OK, yeah - there's a big difference when it's for hormonal reasons! *g* Those get a free pass. :p

And I think that being willing to change things indicates an investment in your writing as a whole, rather than an overinvestment in a character or fic in particular. If that distinction makes sense. :)

[severity-softly.livejournal.com]

Perfect sense. *hug*

[aoibhe.livejournal.com]

I'm probably the wrong person to ask, as I'm Ms Emotional anyway. ::eyeroll:: But I don't think it's stupid/wrong/bad etc. to become emotionally involved in your writing. If you're not going to... why should your readers?


♥

[severity-softly.livejournal.com]

LOL - *G* Yes, investing is one thing. I wonder how much investing is too much, sometimes, especially on days when I'm writing things that are pulling really strong emotions from me (ahsjdgkalshg like the last two days!), but otherwise, I agree. Under-investing, I think, at least to me, is more of an issue in poor writing. *shrugs* But I could be making excuses for myself. ;)

*hugs*

[innerslytherin]

LOL Well, I am the girl who currently has tears in her eyes, so not one to talk. >.>

Then again, I was going to say earlier that on rare occasions I have written something (original fic) that scared the hell out of me. And I have always loved that. If I can scare myself, when I'm the one who has control over it, that's cool!

[severity-softly.livejournal.com]

*snuggles your Dave muse* I think Aaron is done making me wibble for now.

THIS TOPIC IS ALL YOUR FAULT, BTW. IN CASE YOU DIDN'T KNOW THAT.

*griiiiiin*

[innerslytherin]

I hadn't guessed. *snerks and wipes off the tears*