Last night and today, I've been while I wrote because Martha and Jonathan get bad news about their adopted child passing away.

Do you cry with your characters? Laugh with them? Get angry with them against the foe!

I feel a little silly because I emote so well with the characters in my stories.

James

Yip. I cried loads when I wrote a sad little one shot recently about someone remembering her husband's death.

Hi James,

I don't write but I think it's not that illogical.

I emote with the characters of stories I'm reading, not only L&C's characters but also from other books, because reading it's like spending time with them and share what they go through.

I think while writing you also get to know your characters, invest time in them. At some point to write what they're feeling you have to imagine/feel it. At the end if they laugh you'll laugh and if they cry you'll cry.

Carolyn

I do it differently. Instead of boohooing while I'm writing the character the next day I'll find myself in a general funk. In the same way, if my characters are arguing I'll find myself short-tempered the next day.

I tend to be that way in other areas, as well. I don't watch sitcoms anymore because I don't like myself after I watch them. I get sarcastic and bratty. I quit watching them back when Roseanne was on the air; she was absolutely the worst for me.


Elisabeth

For whatever reason, my own writing doesn't move me at all. I wish it did; it would make it easier for me to tell whether it was effective. But I fiddle with things so much during the writing process, and then have read them so many times before they're actually posted, that they're just words on a page to me. I have no idea if they're funny in the right places, sad in the right places, etc.

Caroline

I'm too much like Lois not to feel for her or Clark. It's gotten to the point where I can't read anything sad/unfinished during the evening because I'll be up late reading something else to make me happy again, and then I'm screwed for school the next morning. Does anyone have one that I can borrow for a while?

I emote easier during the funnier parts, though, than during the sad or angry parts. I can laugh at my own jokes for hours. It's kind of pathetic.


Elisabeth

At times I can get so "lost" in writing a scene that it truly feels like it's happening before my eyes.

There have been times when reading other folc's fic where I truly wanted to yell at Lois and tell her she does not deserve Clark or to open her eyes already. Likewise there've been times when I wished Clark would have stood up to Lois once and for all.

Since I haven't watched any episodes other than the Pilot awhile back, since L and C originally aired, I don't have the base of specifics to episodes just what I remember of them or better what other folcs and their stories share with me. I try to write the characters as honestly as I can despite and of course want all to work out in the end!

Mona

I cry very easily, first of all. There are a lot of stories that make me baul like a baby on these boards, especially the first time I'm reading them. (Take a bow, authors!)

But when I'm writing my own stories, I find I cry more when I'm not expecting the particularly teary parts. There is a particularly emotional part in the story I'm working on that IS very teary in my opinion. (We'll see what the readers think later.)
But I've been expecting that moment, and picturing the scene since like chapter nine or ten. So I guess I was prepared for it.
Where as when I'm writing Kiley go through a particularly hard rescue or something that is supposed to be "filler" to get to the really hard parts, I hadn't planned on it. So that's when I start getting really emotional in my own story.

If I'm not feeling what my characters are feeling, I feel like I'm doing something wrong. That is why, when I'm writing a story, I write as fast as possible. I need to get to that happy ending so that I can feel good again.

ML

I, too, emote when I read stories. I cry easily, too. I recently wrote 'Sleep' and for some reason that story said, "Write me, now!!" Maybe it was supposed to help someone - I don't know. But when I proofread it, I sobbed. Then I sobbed some more after I went to bed while waiting to see what my beta said about it. I've shown the story to some folks at work and a couple of them teared up. I hated to make them cry, but I'm glad they liked it.

There was one story I read a few years ago that was so sad that it sent me running from this fandom for a brief while. At that time in my life, I wasn't prepared for such a sad story amd a sad ending.

I wish we had more comedies on the board, because I also really like to laugh. My favorite comedy: FoLCs in the Mist. Mary has a great flair for comedy.

Ok, I just had the most...odd conversation with Elisabeth.

"James, what's my favorite food to eat at Bob Evan's?" She does ask these things of me because she knows what it tastes like, but not necessarily the name of the item.

I do a good fish imitation "Uh...hmmm."

"Omelet."

Bewildered, I nod my head, "Glad you came up with it cause I was going down a different route entirely."

Several minutes go by, I read Dandello's Fairy Tale.

Elisabeth lets out a groan. I look up. "Oh, that sounds sooo good!" she explained.

I look at her questioningly. She describes this wonderful tasting omelet, coffee and, "Organic Wheat Toast with homemade strawberry preserves!"

I nodded again. My stomach growls and I go scavenging.

Many minutes go by and it dawns on me. I turn to her and say "You are making yourself hungry by writing about what Clark is having to eat!"

A very tiny voice responds, "So?"

I just laugh.

She looks at me and says, "If you can be teary-eyed with your characters, I can salivate with Clark!"

Yes, she did say that I could rat her out on that one.

James

When I read... YES!!!
When I write... yes (about 1/10 as strong)

As little as I've done I don't know if it will stay this way when I'm writing. But in both cases I get deep into the stories and often get caught up in the emotion.

I would be worried that if I'm writing something that should have some emotional impact, if I can't feel it, how can I tell if a reader will?

Perhaps with experience I won't have to rely on that to guide me. When it comes to writing, in the words of VM Smith, "I am only an egg."

Bob

I have a tendency to grin and even occasionally giggle when writing funny and waffy stuff (which drives my DH nuts cause he asks what's going on and I won't tell him.)

I don't tear up quite as much as I used to, but when I was researching funerals for Richard White's funeral (in the Shadows series) I could only do the research in short spates because I got teared up. Killing him wasn't nearly as upsetting as burying him.

But it was a beautiful service.

I think so. Sort of. Although I once wrote something I found hilariously evil and was doing a good impression of this guy here After all, who guarantees that it will all work out in the end

Michael