Are you addicted to writing?

[Magicman]

Last night or should I say early this morning, the cable television screen blanked out, the background noise vanished. A glance at the screen showed the 3:00 AM nightly update was in progress. What? It's 3:00 AM? I finished the paragraph I was writing and scurried off to the bedroom where I set the clock to 8:00 AM.

My sleep time suffers when I lose track of time, typing away, building the next scene in the novel.

Earlier yesterday...

I look out the window and the blades of grass are leaning over, the occasional one swaying in the wind like a hula dancer. When was the last time I mowed? I should mow today, after I finish this chapter - alrighty, I got two chapters written, it's time to mow the lawn. Why is it so dark? Well I can mow tomorrow. I better get supper going. When I enter the kitchen, the clean counter is littered with dishes, stacked like a magician would to spin them on a stick. Little gremlins called children made dinner, I smelt the aroma wafting in from the kitchen, heard the clanking of utensils on pots and assumed they would clean up after themselves. Never assume. Now I had to imitate the Flash - empty the dish washer, load it with the dirty plates and utensils, hand scrub the pots and pans, throw the roast into the microwave and set it to defrost, get the stove warming and the potatoes, and carrots peeled before she gets home - too late.... "What do you mean you only wanted to edit one chapter? Get your shoes on, we're going out to eat and - you're paying."

Are you addicted to writing? Do you displace other chores to make time to write? Is there a "Writer's Anonymous"?

 

[Barbara]

Are you addicted to writing?

Yap!

Do you displace other chores to make time to write?

You should see my house ...

Is there a "Writer's Anonymous"?

I wouldn't go if there was such a thing. No one can talk me out of writing.

 

[Emurelda]

I'm addicted to creating several projects. Some happen to be writing projects. I'm trying to keep myself disciplined by focusing on one at a time. But I do get consumed in the world that I've created for a particular story. Right now this is the longest project I've worked on maybe I should sacrifice some sleep to finish it. So maybe i'm not as addicted as others are.

 

[Emily]

YES, ditto @Emurelda ! Me too. I've several projects on the go at all times. But then, I read several books at the same time too so I obviously have a very split personality!!

 

[KateESal]

I don't know about addicted, but I'm definitely obsessed.

 

[Patricia D]

I certainly get immersed and don't notice the passage of time

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I come to life when I'm writing, experiencing a buzz akin to addiction. In this way, creating new stories is my substitute for what Steve McQueen said about racing:

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Well, I'll be the odd one out and say, actually, no. I enjoy writing, but don't usually lose myself in it. Occasionally, I'll be a bit late picking up the kids after school because I lost track of time writing, but my addiction is gardening (weeding in particular). It's a good thing I have a family to drag me indoors now and again; otherwise I'd collapse among the tomatoes mid-summer rather than come inside and eat or drink or rest.

 

[Emily]

my addiction is gardening (weeding in particular).

Robinne, should you ever fancy a holiday in Ireland to explore your heart's-weeding-desires, we have an enormous garden, a little of which we are trying to claim back in shrubberies and vegetable beds... I will feed you exceptionally well and let you spend as long as you like amongst the fragrant soil (and a few chickens and ducks, but they are very friendly). Just, y'know, FYI. If you want to plan any time away...!!

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Robinne, should you ever fancy a holiday in Ireland to explore your heart's-weeding-desires, we have an enormous garden, a little of which we are trying to claim back in shrubberies and vegetable beds... I will feed you exceptionally well and let you spend as long as you like amongst the fragrant soil (and a few chickens and ducks, but they are very friendly). Just, y'know, FYI. If you want to plan any time away...!!

I'm afraid I have my own little farmlet here, in a land where the weeds grow year-round, which satisfies even my weeding obsession. Nice try!

 

[Emily]

Nice try!

Darn it!!!!!!!!!

 

[David Weller]

I share the same addiction as Robinne. If I ever write a bestseller I'm going to buy a house with a bigger garden. As I pen this there are seedlings of a New Zealand native species popping up everywhere. My wife and I call them Kiwi Plants as I discarded the seed packet years ago and can't remember the proper name. With pale green foliage and producing purple bell shaped flowers they bloom right through the winter.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Hm ... purple bell-shaped flowers is very un-Kiwi ... most of our native plants have quite flat, open flowers. Calystegia soldanella, perhaps? Or one of the Parahebes? Anyway, if you'd like to weed some New Zealand natives, you're more than welcome to come here and pull weeds. Plenty of them to go around! Although @Rainbird is closer, and it sounds like she could use some weeding, too.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

I write because I feel moved to but I wouldn't say I'm addicted. I have other outlets for the thing in me that wants to write. I'm more galvanised to write than obsessed and I like an orderly environment. But I couldn't do without reading, and as for writing, I want to ship a product, because a story needs readers, and whatever I start, I finish.

 

[Tim James]

For me once I have an idea in my head for a story or scene I can't do or think about much else until I've got it down. Sleep is more or less impossible when I've reached "crital mass". I HAVE to write it down before I can sleep. This state of affairs doesn't happen that often sadly, but when it does I can go 24 hours without sleep, just writing, writing, writing in frantic four or five hour bursts punctuated with cups of tea or some sandwiches.
Once it is down and "out of my brain", then I can sleep.
Is this normal? I have no idea.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

 

[Carol Rose]

Addicted? No, because addiction, to me at least, has negative connotations. We're talking only in my mind, though, because of my medical background. Rather, I say writing is my passion. That thing I'd keep doing even if I never made another dime off it. I wish I had more time for it, but then, that's been my wish since I first began writing, decades ago. I'm still working an outside job, but only a few days a week now, so it's getting easier to find that time. But because I'm semi-retired, there are also so many other things I want to do! Things I've put off for decades because there simply wasn't time while I was working full time and sneaking in writing. The writing is a priority, though. It comes first.

 

[David Weller]

Hm ... purple bell-shaped flowers is very un-Kiwi ... most of our native plants have quite flat, open flowers. Calystegia soldanella, perhaps? Or one of the Parahebes? Anyway, if you'd like to weed some New Zealand natives, you're more than welcome to come here and pull weeds. Plenty of them to go around! Although @Rainbird is closer, and it sounds like she could use some weeding, too.

Just did a search for the plant on the internet. Not a New Zealand native as I'd come to believe. Although perfectly hardy in the UK, it actually comes from the Mediterranean. The name? Cerinthe Blue Kiwi.

 

[Rick Hall]

Does it count as an addiction if I take a few hours out of my writing time every week in order to develop my own software to make the writing process faster?

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Cerinthe Blue Kiwi

What a lovely little plant. Sounds weedy, though!

 

[David Weller]

What a lovely little plant. Sounds weedy, though!

It is. Pops up everywhere. Mostly where it isn't wanted.

 

[Amber]

Well ... interesting ... but you know ... addiction is a little more complicated than neglecting one set of tasks because you enjoy doing another set of tasks more.