I've been getting a flurry of questions that might serve as the basis for post #25,000 here. This one from Christopher Geoffrey McPherson will not be that post…
I've been a professional writer (journalist, mostly) most of my life. I am semi-retired, but still write (novels, mostly). There have been many times when I just wanted to stop writing, take a break, turn my mind off and stop putting words on paper. It always passes, but there are times….
Do you ever find yourself in a similar situation? I imagine with all your work and the length of time you've been writing, it must have happened quite a lot.
No, never…which I suspect is a function of writing a lot of different things. If I get tired of the comic book script, I can go work on the animation presentation. I recently found myself for a few months jumping back and forth between a comic book script for kids and a script for a much more adult audience — a script full of naughty words and steamy sex. I adjusted easily but my spell-checker got very confused at the extremes of vocabulary.
Basically, when I get tired of writing one thing, I write something else for a while. I love the sheer act of writing so after spending a solid six or eight hours on an assignment that's due next week, I will often switch to something I'm writing without an assignment — something I may or may not go out and try to sell. Whether or not I will may depend on if I like it enough to finish it and then if I can figure out someplace I might sell it. A mix on my plate of those two kinds of writing can be very fulfilling. What I write on assignment pays money and probably gets produced or published soon. What I write not on assignment allows me to stretch and go new places and write things I especially want to write.
I recently finished something that if I hadn't seen myself write it, I would never have believed it came from me. I'm not saying it's good, I'm not saying it's bad. It's merely different, which has a certain value even if all it ever is is a writing exercise.
So no…the answer to your question is that while I may get tired of a certain script or a certain project, I never get tired of writing. I really can't afford to since I have no skills for anything else.
