Passion and writing uncomfortable

Writing is best when you are uncomfortable. I know that sounds weird, but follow with me on it. You have to have some itch going through you. Something that makes you want to write more than do anything else. You get that burn, not the type when you don't wear socks and get athlete's foot, but still... There has to be a burn there. A need to write beyond anything else more important. Some people refuse to eat, sleep or do anything else until they get that story down. I've been guilty of that several times.

Today was weird for me. I started redrafting a story, and instead of writing about 5,000 and quitting, I logged about 8,000.

This doesn't just happen when you want it to. The need has to take over all of your other wants and desires. Think I'm wrong? Ask those who write the most why they do it. Because they don't know what else to do with it.

I've tried to cease writing sometimes. Do anything else. And if I get a story lodged in my head, a really good one, it stays there. I could be doing anything else and still have my thoughts haunted by the story. It keeps me up at night and sometimes the only therapy for that is to write it out. What's funny is how it changes once you start putting it down on paper. No longer is it is the simplistic story you formed as an idea. Now it's a full-bodied mess of ideas, complications, emotions, family history, and whatever else goes in there.

I get people talking to me who say funny things. Once in a while, I put it in a story as something a character says, does or recalls someone else doing. What I marvel at is how it enhances the story overall. Changes the characters for the better. You don't get that without inspiration.

One of my friend swears to me that he is writing a novella or short story. It's been a few weeks, haven't heard more about it. That doesn't mean that he isn't trying, but the inspiration is different when you have to write every day. It makes you push yourself harder for subject matter. There are no days off in this business. If there are, or you just want to sit with a donut and force yourself to write three words so you can watch Dr. Phil or mow the lawn, then you don't really want it.

That's my take. Doesn't mean I can't be wrong. I'm wrong at least fifty-two percent of the time about everything. But getting me to admit it is a different story.

Passion is important. The readers can feel it when they select something that you decided to put down in a document. It matters because if you don't have it, what's the point? I was at a bar last night where the announcer was sick, so for trivia night, they had one of the managers announce the questions for everyone to play. But she was withdrawn, unsure of herself, didn't really know the subject matter. It made it uninteresting to listen to.

You get that with writers who are more enthused with being writers. They don't want to write with passion because that might mean that they have to rewrite what they are putting down. I love to rewrite, especially after the first draft, because its the only way to improve what you are seeing on paper.

The last thing I want is some read suggesting that I don't care about the subject matter. That I don't really want to have the best interests of my reader out there for everyone to see. If you do that, people abandon you until you do figure it out.