How do you feel when writing?

[TheLowKing]

I noticed I enjoy writing the most when I totally submerge myself in my protagonist's experiences. When they're stressed, I'm stressed. When they're happy, I'm happy. When they're turned on, I'm turned on. That also tends to produce the prose that I'm most pleased with.

But that got me wondering: is that the same for others? Do you put yourself in your protagonist's shoes? Or do you feel more like a remote, omnipotent god, steering the action from above? Or maybe you're more humble, a passive observer of the action, like you're watching your characters make all the decisions without your personal involvement? Or something else entirely?

 

[Gambio]

I find emotions very important when it comes to writing but it's tough for me to always get in the right headspace. I tend to have bursts of creativity followed by months of nothing, meaning sometimes I just have to put down somehing even if I am not really feeling it.

I'm also a fan of horny writing, this one's at least easier to channel lol

 

[Zeebop]

It's definitely a better writing experience when I can get in the flow of things. Chapters without that certain zest can still come out, albeit a bit mechanical.

 

[Zingiber]

I feel like I'm at my protagonists' side and following closely with their point of view while writing; their points of interest and my points of interest in the writing are aligned, except that I get to skip ahead to a new scene, venue, or point of view, or skip among different point of view characters within a scene.

 

[Kizonu]

It depends on what I'm writing! With my current project it's felt very therapeutic to get a lot of of stuff out there on the page. But on my last writing project (a non-erotic one) It's felt a lot more tiring because of all the moving pieces of that story. So yeah it varies a lot, lol.

In terms of do I feel what the characters are feeling? Sometimes. Often I try to write from emotional experience (so not so much writing about things that actually happened to me but rather writing from a place where I can understand my character's emotions based on my own) and that often feels more cathartic than directly in line with what they feel.