What's my motivation here?

[hildy89]

CVS meeting was more draining than I expected. Without a book or speaker planned, we did some writing prompts. I did a rather silly send up of Ron's line about spiders and butterflies that I must type up for my HP friends. We also used some pictures from Motivate your Writing book and analyzed our motivations for writing. Kelner breaks them down into three major areas: Achievement, Affiliation and Power. Most people have them in combination. The interesting thing is how they change depending on the situation. During Nano, I am Achievement girl. I'm zeroed in on a goal and by gosh I am going to make it even I have to stay up all night. I discovered that while I enjoy the social aspects of the write-ins, I don't get as much done in them. On the other hand, when I'm in the writing group, during the rest of the year, I'm very much about fitting in and hoping my writing is liked. I suspect I'm that way for fannish pursuits as well. And yet, I don't. If I did, I'd write the same ships and fannish niches as everyone else, wouldn't I? I just wish I could figure out a way to use this to balance them more. I like the hard goals, but I also crave the social aspects of writing. Writing for myself was nice once, but lately it's not enough. I need someone to say "Oooh, I like" or "I never thought of it that way". Or peek over my shoulder and say "Eh, that needs explaining more."

Something to cogitate on.

Oh, and I got the job and I start on Monday. Yay me!

Comments

[jordannamorgan]

Congrats on the job. :)

I spent many, many years writing for absolutely no one but myself, not even knowing that "fanfiction" existed, so for me it's entirely about the personal pleasure I get from it. If all feedback for my fanfic ceased tomorrow, I'm pretty sure I'd still write it. Or at the very least, finish some things before moving on to my patiently-waiting novel ideas.

But of course, I'm really not social in any sense.

[pinkpolarity.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the job!! :)

[sventhelost.livejournal.com]

Yay on the job!

I, too, am cogitating on how best to apply what I learned. It's interesting! I must read the rest of this book.

When I first started wanting more from my writing, seeing how my friends reacted was cool. I think (THINK, mind you) that this was at least some of the interpersonal aspect. So I don't know if sharing your work with people you like and trust will help be a motivation. YMMV, as they say. Or type, anyway. :)

Good luck figuring it out! I'm still cogitating on a lot of what we talked about. 'Scool. :)

[nycdeb.livejournal.com]

yeah! jobness!