How do you control writing obsession?

[Swilly]

I tend to write on again and off again, because when I start, I tend to get a bit obsessed by it. With a job, wife, kids, etc to deal with, it can be very difficult to be in the middle of a story and set it aside. Even if I stop physically typing, it is still going on in my head. Living half engaged isn't any way to live.

I'm sure other writers struggle with this. How do you manage it?

 

[sr71plt]

Not always very well. There are things that take priority in life, but I can be a nervous wreck while doing them and not able to get at the computer to let a story write itself. To cope I try to take on an "oh, well, if I lose that another idea will be along when I can write it up" attitude. The worst time for me is when I'm doing something I can't get away from and a retwist of a story I'm working on occurs. When I wake up in the night with one of these flashes, I have to go to the computer and at least make a note of it.

 

[RoyceConnors]

I tend to write on again and off again, because when I start, I tend to get a bit obsessed by it. With a job, wife, kids, etc to deal with, it can be very difficult to be in the middle of a story and set it aside. Even if I stop physically typing, it is still going on in my head. Living half engaged isn't any way to live.

I'm sure other writers struggle with this. How do you manage it?

I like to finish writing at a certain point that allows me to pick up right away from where I left off. It triggers my mind to start off there and the story begins to flow again. If ideas come, I'll remember them and put them in at the appropriate place I thought of and make any alterations to accommodate them.

Life will always get in the way of writing, so it's giving yourself a 'leave-off' place to get into it again easily.

 

[TxRad]

My writing is interrupted so much that it doesn't phase me anymore.

I could have finished the story I'm working on right now three times over if it wasn't for interruptions.

I take a break, do something like fall in here and then get back to it.

 

[MrFoxwood]

I'm rarely away from a story in my head, my wife's current interest with my writing helps as it means I can bounce ideas off her pretty much constantly. My child is still young enough that his needs can be met without requiring my complete brain activity, that sounds bad, I just mean he's not old enough to be asking for homework help or be climbing on the roof. So long as he's not actually out of sight I'm free to let a corner of my brain mull over a story.

In short: I don't deal with it, my life allows me to cope.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Beer. Beer seems to help. Only too much beer doesn't.

It's kind of like writing. I get to a point that...I have the words, I know where the story is going, but all of a sudden, I no longer want to work on it.

Beer eases the pain of not writing. It also eases the pain of writing.

Damn I'm using the period!

 

[StrangeLife]

Beer. Beer seems to help.

You are more right than you might realize...


http://s15.postimg.org/o45po9lnf/beercoffee.png

 

[Zeb_Carter]

You are more right than you might realize...


http://s15.postimg.org/o45po9lnf/beercoffee.png

Cool. I knew I was on to something.

 

[MrFoxwood]

You are more right than you might realize...


http://s15.postimg.org/o45po9lnf/beercoffee.png

Whereas gin just makes you forget how things work. I could sworn that we get younger as time progresses, fuck you gin.

 

[sr71plt]

Dirty stories come quicker with Shiraz.

 

[Hypoxia]

OP: By definition, an obsession can't really be controlled. If you MUST do something, then you will. It's simple OCD.

We write IMHO because we MUST, because the words demand release. Sometimes they flow effortlessly, even demandingly, obsessively. Sometimes they don't flow at all, the dreaded 'block.' Sometimes they squeeze out like... well, like the constipated mathematician who worked it out with a pencil.

Sometimes a story doesn't cooperate. I have a few tales in my slop pile with great starts and no path to continue on, or with great starts and endings but needing good second acts.

NOTE: F Scott Fitzgerald (?) said, "There are no second acts in American life," or something like that. Usually interpreted as meaning, "no second CHANCES", but that's not right. Drama usually has three acts: introduction, development, resolution. Fitz meant that in USA life, we skip the development phase and cut to the end without understanding the impacts. Yikes.

Back to the problem: If you gotta write, you will. If not, you won't. I get very frustrated when I must spend time away from a keyboard. The stories still grow within me, crying for release. I just try to remember where they're going.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Never be timid in love, war, or writing...audacity is everything, impetuosity is good. On the other hand Napoleon won Austerlitz because he recognized the disaster his opponents had setup within their battle-plan. All he need do is be patient until they attacked his right flank so he could send a corps into the spot they had vacated while turning a few brigades to get behind the Austrian troops assaulting his right flank. He pushed/lured them onto the frozen lake then broke up the ice with his artillery. Many drowned.

Be audacious when you recognize opportunity. But don't be impulsive.

 

[RoyceConnors]

I wouldn't say I obsess about writing, but I find I have to type at least 4-5 hrs a day to satisfy my desire to write. I love creating and writing gives me the venue to do that. If I find a subject/topic to write about, once my mind has figured out the story, I'm writing daily as long as I can to get it down.

I could type 2500 words and be happy, or 12500 and be happy, as long as the creativity side of me is appeased. It's when that desire turns into an obsession, that's when I'll worry, LOL

 

[StrangeLife]

My writing is interrupted so much that it doesn't phase me anymore.

I could have finished the story I'm working on right now three times over if it wasn't for interruptions.

You could try signing up with Patreon and gather enough patrons to write full-time. I think you'd be the first porn-writer in there...

 

[TxRad]

You could try signing up with Patreon and gather enough patrons to write full-time. I think you'd be the first porn-writer in there...

Those are a crazy looking bunch of people.

I'm afraid a porn writer wouldn't have a chance among them.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

You could try signing up with Patreon and gather enough patrons to write full-time. I think you'd be the first porn-writer in there...

Ah, crowd funding.

 

[StrangeLife]

Ah, crowd funding.

Don't knock it. Some of those guys are getting a substantial steady income. Like this cartoonist or this musician.

Makes me wish I had a talent...

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Don't knock it. Some of those guys are getting a substantial steady income. Like this cartoonist or this musician.

Makes me wish I had a talent...

I'm not knocking it. The gaming industry has been using it for quite awhile now.

There are several start up game companies that have accumulated $20million+ in crowd funding.

 

[mikoli5763]

Unless you're engaged

in an activity that requires one hundred percent concentration, what's wrong with a story running through your head most of the time?
It happens to me all the time. The finding time to write is my problem.

 

[StrangeLife]

in an activity that requires one hundred percent concentration, what's wrong with a story running through your head most of the time?

Judge: "Very well mr. Mikoli. Please tell the court why you failed to brake and thus rear-ended the claimants car?"

Mikoli: "Certainly your honor. I was on my way home when I suddenly got this idea about a gang-bang with six well-hung black construction workers and a petite female office clerk with a latent submissive personality..."

 

[TxRad]

Judge: "Very well mr. Mikoli. Please tell the court why you failed to brake and thus rear-ended the claimants car?"

Mikoli: "Certainly your honor. I was on my way home when I suddenly got this idea about a gang-bang with six well-hung black construction workers and a petite female office clerk with a latent submissive personality..."

Judge: Obviously you are a writer on Lit. CASE DISMISSED!

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Judge: "Very well mr. Mikoli. Please tell the court why you failed to brake and thus rear-ended the claimants car?"

Mikoli: "Certainly your honor. I was on my way home when I suddenly got this idea about a gang-bang with six well-hung black construction workers and a petite female office clerk with a latent submissive personality..."

So, you can't think and drive at the same time but you can text, talk on the cell phone, put on makeup and drive?

 

[StrangeLife]

So, you can't think and drive at the same time but you can text, talk on the cell phone, put on makeup and drive?

We are fully capable of multitasking, but six 12" black cocks commands too much attention. One or two may be ok, but six... no way.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

We are fully capable of multitasking, but six 12" black cocks commands too much attention. One or two may be ok, but six... no way.

TMC is a terrible thing to suffer from while driving.

They have a pill for that, you know.

It's called Prozac.