Has writing and publishing changed you?

[Alitaptap]

Strangely, for me it has, and people in real life are beginning to notice little changes without knowing where it’s coming from. It makes me wonder, is it the same for you?

I’ve been writing for myself for a long time, but I’d never back read, it was more to get the emotions out of me and move on. That or I’d give what I wrote to people I loved, but those people know me deeply so it didn’t make much of a dent.

But posting my writing here and letting strangers read it has forced me to truly read my work, to confront things I’d rather not, to see gaps, voids, vacuums within myself that I need to fill in real life.

During an edit it’s like, “oh, I didn’t know I needed that,” or “crap, that’s what that feeling was.” And then, I try to address it in real life, filling my life with more of whatever it was that I didn’t know I was missing.

This month, I’ve had random comments from acquaintances or even lifelong friends noticing the change, which has made me think deeply about it.

So yeah, writing and publishing here has been an adventure of sorts (not really of the sexual kind but more of the personal for me.) The writing has made me try new things, do more of what I love, and has changed my perspective on many things. I’ve found that creation feeds my soul, and in turn, I am changing because of it.

So it made me want to ask, how about you? Has writing and publishing changed you?

 

[Seadog777]

It hasn't changed who I am as a person in an overall aspect.

It's made me become more open to taking suggestions from fellow authors. (When they're polite about it)

 

[ElectricBlue]

Don't think so. I'm still the same man with the same imagination, I just started to write it all down. I doubt there's much therapy involved, and only one piece of catharsis. A psychoanalyst might have a field day, but I'm not sure they'd tell me anything I didn't already know.

 

[CurvySassyAJ]

Kind of, I am slightly more confident in my writing. Only slightly and thankfully I have good friends who encourage me, prod me to keep going and allow me to fret and bounce ideas around. One in particular tells me "Focus Amy, focus," if I begin to talk about other story ideas before finishing a story.

 

[cuppatea]

Writing process has not changed me, the editing process changes the way I read my own work as well as that of others.

I’m more critical of my own work than anyone else’s, been known to hack sections out that appear to have little purpose/worth to the overall story.

 

[Fl_maledad]

I would love links to stories. I have read the stories for years on lit and love reading new material. I like all categories.

 

[spankableBelle]

Yes.
It has changed me. It has given me things that I couldn't get elsewhere...
It's allowed me to have a voice when I didn't before or when I couldn't find it.
It's given me confidence.
It's shown me that I can do hard things.
It's broadened my mind, my curiosity, my whole world.
It's allowed me the freedom to express things within that I had no other way to express, allowed me to deal with shit inside me that needed to get out, allowed me to feel...

 

[Rob_Royale]

I find I'm looking for sexy stories everywhere.

Also, I started this thread which is on this subject as well.
https://forum.literotica.com/threads/me-my-wife-and-writing-erotica.1577540/#post-96588538

 

[cuppatea]

Yes.
It has changed me. It has given me things that I couldn't get elsewhere...
It's allowed me to have a voice when I didn't before or when I couldn't find it.
It's given me confidence.
It's shown me that I can do hard things.
It's broadened my mind, my curiosity, my whole world.
It's allowed me the freedom to express things within that I had no other way to express, allowed me to deal with shit inside me that needed to get out, allowed me to feel...

This.

*mutters a silent: I wish I wrote that*

 

[Emilymcplugger]

Strangely, for me it has, and people in real life are beginning to notice little changes without knowing where it’s coming from. It makes me wonder, is it the same for you?

I’ve been writing for myself for a long time, but I’d never back read, it was more to get the emotions out of me and move on. That or I’d give what I wrote to people I loved, but those people know me deeply so it didn’t make much of a dent.

But posting my writing here and letting strangers read it has forced me to truly read my work, to confront things I’d rather not, to see gaps, voids, vacuums within myself that I need to fill in real life.

During an edit it’s like, “oh, I didn’t know I needed that,” or “crap, that’s what that feeling was.” And then, I try to address it in real life, filling my life with more of whatever it was that I didn’t know I was missing.

This month, I’ve had random comments from acquaintances or even lifelong friends noticing the change, which has made me think deeply about it.

So yeah, writing and publishing here has been an adventure of sorts (not really of the sexual kind but more of the personal for me.) The writing has made me try new things, do more of what I love, and has changed my perspective on many things. I’ve found that creation feeds my soul, and in turn, I am changing because of it.

So it made me want to ask, how about you? Has writing and publishing changed you?

Maybe the real changes were the friends we made on Authors Hangout?

 

[onehitwanda]

I wrote my first fantasy (as in elves, you sickos) when I was fifteen. It was the first time I found something that I was actually *good* enough at to stand out from my classmates.

As I've gone through life I've published (for free, online) lots of content - I was a complete Fanfiction whore for many years (Star Wars - don't kink shame). For many of those years I was extremely lonely so putting my emotions into writing and putting it out there got me attention and... softened the sharp edges of everything a bit, I suppose.

And now I'm growing old and I've got some dents and some verdigris on my soul.

Life isn't roses and unicorns - it's bleak, and hard, and the shining bright moments come at a cost. Not everyone finds their person. Few people get what they deserve. Not every thought can be voiced - the world is capricious and loves to trample on dreams.

So I write the stories I want to read. The happy endings, the people who find a little nook out of the storm where for a season, or a year they can be part of something more.

Writing's made me more resilient. It's made me more encouraging towards others. The criticism I've received has certainly made me less likely to criticise - now I'll just hold my tongue instead. The obverse is that I'm far less tolerant of poor writing. Where I used to soldier on (Hello, first chapter of Eragon, I'm looking at you) now I just fling stuff away from me.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

I wrote my first fantasy (as in elves, you sickos) when I was fifteen. It was the first time I found something that I was actually *good* enough at to stand out from my classmates.

As I've gone through life I've published (for free, online) lots of content - I was a complete Fanfiction whore for many years (Star Wars - don't kink shame). For many of those years I was extremely lonely so putting my emotions into writing and putting it out there got me attention and... softened the sharp edges of everything a bit, I suppose.

And now I'm growing old and I've got some dents and some verdigris on my soul.

Life isn't roses and unicorns - it's bleak, and hard, and the shining bright moments come at a cost. Not everyone finds their person. Few people get what they deserve. Not every thought can be voiced - the world is capricious and loves to trample on dreams.

So I write the stories I want to read. The happy endings, the people who find a little nook out of the storm where for a season, or a year they can be part of something more.

Writing's made me more resilient. It's made me more encouraging towards others. The criticism I've received has certainly made me less likely to criticise - now I'll just hold my tongue instead. The obverse is that I'm far less tolerant of poor writing. Where I used to soldier on (Hello, first chapter of Eragon, I'm looking at you) now I just fling stuff away from me.

Not sure who you sounded more like there.

Rick Blaine from Casablanca or Rocky Balboa from Rocky Balboa.

It is a horrid world and horrible people run it who think nothing of their own horribleness because in their deluded heads there is no truth and they’re the heroes of their story.

They are incapable of looking at themselves critically.

But I think people are capable of achieving so much by working together and I think people have more skills and more talent than they think. I bet if any lit-authors came across each other in real-life with our strange accents and quirks we’d wonder “how on earth did THEY come up with that content”.

I don’t think doing this has changed me as I’ve always had a creative streak, but I am surprised that I HAVE took the plunge and written erotica as I didn’t think it’d be something I’d ever do.

 

[onehitwanda]

It is a horrid world and horrible people run it who think nothing of their own horribleness because in their deluded hears there is no truth and they’re the heroes of their story.

Someone once described it to me as: "Most people are NPCs to other people."

And that made it all make sense.

 

[yowser]

Writing's made me more resilient. It's made me more encouraging towards others. The criticism I've received has certainly made me less likely to criticise - now I'll just hold my tongue instead. The obverse is that I'm far less tolerant of poor writing.

Nicely said.

The writing sword cuts many ways, resilience and compassion are two wonderful attributes, and any addition to their collective pools is worthy and admirable.

Odd, but somehow logical that tolerance for inferior creation accompanies. That's been the case for me as well.

 

[KeithD]

I've been writing so long that I don't remember a "before."

 

[tenyari]

My university degrees are in subjects with a lot of deep analytical writing. I got them in the years between my old stories and my new ones.

I think that process changed me - learning to think about the world more deeply.

Critical Thinking Studies in a variety of fields.

My fiction writing has not had major impacts that I can trace. Maybe it has been influenced by my ability to think deeper and more outside of my own biases / thoughts - but it also provided a hurdle to the same.

When I meet someone I can often spot how educated they are in 'social sciences' - Hard sciences like Physics, Computers, and Engineering don't teach people how to think (I have education on those fields and work in them are that are full of people who are stupid, whereas the social sciences are full of people who are ignorant - the difference means everything. It's only the deeply uneducated or stupid who ever think they are NOT ignorant). If people process thoughts, if they can argue the point that opposes their own, if they don't presume they are correct - we might all do these things in the moment. But if a person can, given a moment to step away, reflect and really think. That's the value I got out of my degrees.

And that does inform my writing now.

If my writing did anything, it made it a littler harder to get genuinely educated, because I came in with assumptions and assurances that got in my way of learning I until I became more aware of them.

 

[Alitaptap]

Writing's made me more resilient. It's made me more encouraging towards others. The criticism I've received has certainly made me less likely to criticise - now I'll just hold my tongue instead. The obverse is that I'm far less tolerant of poor writing. Where I used to soldier on (Hello, first chapter of Eragon, I'm looking at you) now I just fling stuff away from me.

True for me too. When I relive the emotions again while editing it, I’m surprised I lived through that time in my life or that moment with that person. And yes, it’s the shadows I’m facing now - these cold, hard facts about life. And writing, surprisingly, is helping me do that too.

But I think people are capable of achieving so much by working together and I think people have more skills and more talent than they think. I bet if any lit-authors came across each other in real-life with our strange accents and quirks we’d wonder “how on earth did THEY come up with that content”.

I don’t think doing this has changed me as I’ve always had a creative streak, but I am surprised that I HAVE took the plunge and written erotica as I didn’t think it’d be something I’d ever do.

Hahaha! Yes, if we did come across each other IRL, it would be really?? You??? Hahaha! And same here, I didn’t think I’d ever post my stuff publicly on an erotica site, but here we are.

It's allowed me the freedom to express things within that I had no other way to express, allowed me to deal with shit inside me that needed to get out, allowed me to feel...

My good friends the other day pointed it out - that’s probably why I was thinking about it deeply - they said I had less walls for some reason - and I was like, “really, like how?” And they said, “you’re more open.” And truly, nothing else has really changed except for the writing. It’s allowed me to see other perspectives not just logically, but emotionally. And it’s made me more honest with myself and with those around me.

 

[Zootonius]

I'm finding writing has mixed effects. I started writing stories here as a creative outlet. I used fantasies from my twenties as a basis. But it has also reminding me of how awful my life was in my twenties. I had become a hermit then, doing my best to avoid a world that looked at me as something the cat dragged it. But I am amazed at how resilient I was then.

In a way, I identify with Philip Rhayader in 'The Snow Goose.' Except I finally found a woman with odd tastes in men.

 

[Zootonius]

And now I'm growing old and I've got some dents and some verdigris on my soul.

And I'm growing old and I've got some dents. But my soul is just plain rusty.

 

[onehitwanda]

And I'm growing old and I've got some dents. But my soul is just plain rusty.

that's just because you're salty

 

[Zootonius]

that's just because you're salty

fulminate of mercury is a salt.

(we've reached to point of cross thread jokes.)

 

[EmilyMiller]

Strangely, for me it has, and people in real life are beginning to notice little changes without knowing where it’s coming from. It makes me wonder, is it the same for you?

It’s helped me to understand my younger self better. To come to terms with some past traumas. And - most positively - to forgive myself for some of the stupid mistakes I made.

My therapist suggested that - as I like writing - I try to write about stuff that has happened to me. I don’t often deal with my own baggage explicitly, but it does shape what I write about and how I write about it. There are echoes of me - often in side and supporting characters; even when I am also the FMC.

Em

 

[PapaRomantic]

As a musician and former music teacher, I sometimes find it difficult not to listen to music without analyzing it, for chord progressions and melodic and harmonic flow, as well as critique the performers. I have a hard time in simply relaxing and listening.

I think the same has happened as I read stories here. I seem to struggle to read for fun, and often am thinking of ways I'd rewrite lines and scenes in some of the things I read.

 

[KeithD]

As a musician and former music teacher, I sometimes find it difficult not to listen to music without analyzing it, for chord progressions and melodic and harmonic flow, as well as critique the performers. I have a hard time in simply relaxing and listening.

I think the same has happened as I read stories here. I seem to struggle to read for fun, and often am thinking of ways I'd rewrite lines and scenes in some of the things I read.

That happens. I've done stints as drama and music critics for English-language newspapers abroad and I too found I couldn't stop analyzing performances even when I wasn't writing on them. It's not so hard for the stories here, as I don't read many. I'm afraid if I did, their structure and technicals would get in the way of enjoying the content--but I'd probably have a greater appreciation for the effort required than readers who don't write will.

 

[Alitaptap]

Sadly, yes, writing and publishing has changed my life. When I announced to my lovely wife that I thought I saw a path to be published (which wasn't erotica), she said "I want a divorce."

.
.
.

Now I'm published, but so far only my erotica. I hear that one nice thing about being published is the cred ... you're not just another unknown flake whose manuscript is destined for, at best, the slush pile. Gotta start somewhere.

We'll find out.

I’m so sorry to hear this. But about your writing and publishing, for whatever its worth, I’m rooting for you!!!