I've been pondering this question for ages, so I wonder, how does your writing make you feel?

a> As you're writing
b> After you've finished writing

Steven

Depends whether the words that come out are sheer brilliance or total crap and if I'm writing because I'm inspired or whether the ideas are not flowing but I'm doing it anyway!
Providing all is well then I feel a real sense of urgency as I type and also quite elated. Every sense goes into the writing and I get totally absorbed by it. When I've finished I feel a really excited and have to tell anyone who will listen that I've just written a fantastic chapter/short story - whatever and then I force them to read it.
If it's not going well then I will take any opportunity to pack it all in. I get distracted by anything and everything around me and usually stop writing with great drama, pronounce to everyone that I'm going to throw the whole lot in the bin and then I open (and drink) a bottle of wine, feeling totally disheartened.
I think it's important to write every day firstly to build a sense of your own style/voice but also to practice. If we waited to write until we felt truly inspired, then I know I for one wouldn't get much written.
Sue

As I am writing – now and again I get the buzz - those moments of magic when a character says something, does something. Something you didn’t know a moment before. It’s those ‘of course' moments. I just love and write to experience.
Dawn,x

Scared, sometimes, when putting work in front of an audience or even just trying scenes out with actors- I suppose scared that someone will be negative, or that they'll just respond oddly to the material. Elated when it's cracking along at a good pace and you get that buzz, when your instinctive inner voice kicks in and tells you it's working!

I love the 'of course' moments, when you finally realise how things are going to happen or discover an unexpected twist that you hadn't noticed before.

There are only a couple of times each week when i feel totally involved in the writing and the words just spill out, usually first thing in the morning while there are no distractions.

Sometimes i read something out loud, usually just a line or paragraph and i think 'Surely that didn't come out of me!'. Being happy with a finished story or article is one of the best feelings in the world, i guess that's why i keep writing.

When the words go right it’s a great feeling, when the idea goes from my mind to the PC or paper without modification or very much delay, when I’m on a roll, I’m unstoppable. But when it’s not so good, when words stubbornly won’t fit together, in whatever order I jumble them. I feel very insecure, like this isn’t really my calling and who am I trying to kid? That’s not so good.

When I’m finished writing it feels good, usually. Sure there are obvious changes to make right from the word go, but the whole picture is satisfying. However, usually things are not that good, the re-read is painful, I feel physically sick, who am I trying to kid? Thankfully the ratio of good to bad, or satisfying to unsatisfying is shifting and is continuing to shift for the better, I feel like a little author caterpillar munching on green leaves, dreaming of a double spaced chrysalis to call my own.

There is another aspect of writing that I’m only just beginning to get to grips with. The first real edit is becoming a thing to look forward to rather than dread, cutting and discarding, laughing at my own schoolboy mistakes, clarifying, simplifying, is so very powerful, and to me, a very liberating experience. Sure, I have a long way to go, sure there are bad days, but these are becoming sparse I’m relieved to say.

I'm sure things would haveve been different if I hadn’t found this community…

Grinder

When I'm writing, there is a certain point where it just 'flows' right. That's one of the parts of writing that I love.

The other is to do with the way I write. I do not plan anything down on paper, I don't confine my writing in that way. I have in my mind, exactly the idea of what I'm writing that day. And as I'm writing, my mind goes off into darker realms, and I end up writing something I could never have dreamed of planning.

That for me is the magic of writing. When I read it, I know it's unique, because I always ask myself where the hell that just came from. It's a great feeling.

Steven

I'm with Steven, sometimes it does flow. It's times like those that I try to get as much done as possible.

When I'm writing, I feel great, and am amazed by the things that can happen. I don't tend to plan anything out, and sometimes letting characters tell you a story can reveal all sorts of things. I often wonder "Where the hell did that come from?" - which has lead to me developing a theory that ideas are not your own, but living things, parasites, maybe, that attach themselves to you until you manage to get them down on paper. That's why if I have an idea, and don't do anything with it, it will keep on digging at me, until I do.

After writing though, those times when you hit a stumbling block, they can be frustrating. I'm working on the first episode of my sitcom at the moment, and I have the beginning, I have the end, but there's a big mystery in the middle that I've yet to work through in my head.

getting through these blocks though, when that idea comes that blows them all away, that's a pretty immense feeling too.

Ben,

which has lead to me developing a theory that ideas are not your own, but living things, parasites, maybe, that attach themselves to you until you manage to get them down on paper.

That's a fantastic theory on where inspiration comes from. Writing parasites! Made me think of LeFanu's disturbing short horror story, 'Green Tea'.

Are you going to write a short story about these parasites, it would make a fantastic read?

Steven

What a jolly hockeysticks good question Steven. Margaret Atwood said there are three big questions to ask about writing: (a) why do you do it? (b) who do you do it for? and (c) where does it all come from? I think she missed a trick with (d) how does it make you feel?

I think the answers may vary depending on the day and how well things are going. I'm doing the BBC End Of Story thing at the moment and it's a combination of excited, useless and frustrated before and during, and now I am in the editing stage it's plain old confused.

Incidentally whatever you feel, never throw anything away. Having got nowhere with a very short story in the Fish comp, a few line breaks, some word changes and my 'poem' is being published in Poetry Monthly in August.

And that feels good.

When I'm writing, I feel like finally the miasmic thoughts in my head finally have meaning.

When I'm finished, I love nothing more than to read what I have written a few times, just to soak it up. Then I remind myself that it was me that wrote it, and I smile.

So remember, Knox, you heard the question here first. How does your writing make you feel? [TM/(C) etc.] Soon to be a major boring book, a four-part mini-series starring Rutger Hauer, and a self-help video. The excitement is just too much!

I'm doing the BBC End Of Story as well, and 1,200 words is just TOO SHORT!!! I'm finishing the Shaun Hutson one, surprise, surprise. Or should I say, the Shaun Hutson one is finishing me. Which one are you doing?

Insane Bartender, mismic what? Is it something to do with the human mind? Do tell, it sounds fascinating mate.

Steven

Oh you are telling me. Just a few more words on the limit would make all the difference. My first run through came in at just under 2000, so I reduced the story elements and went back through it: 1400 words. To get those last 200 out without ruining it is very hard. So I am now rethinking what's important and what's not.

I'm doing The Angel by Sue Townsend, not for any other reason than she writes like me (or rather I write like her) and so getting the mood/pacing right is a little easier.

mi·as·ma A thick vaporous atmosphere or emanation

In answer to the original question, despondent