A question for the writers out there: How do you feel when you write?
I'm not actually a writer, but I play one on Steemit. I'd say it depends on what I'm writing with regard to whether the event being depicted is conveying a given emotion enough on its own.
Generally I feel focused, except when writing poetry I don't feel like my personal emotions are going into the words. On the contrary, eliminating excess words and removing myself from the content as much as possible so that the actions paint a picture is what I strive for. And then, when I re-read the material if I'm not getting out of it the emotion I had hoped would have been conveyed by the imagery, then I cheat and start to add hints of how the character being depicted feels about the situation.
At least, this is the ideal that I aim for. It's fairly hit or miss, but I hope that by continuing to write I can get better at it.
Sometimes I wonder if it is a chicken or the egg scenario where I am unsure which way the streams flow.
With poetry I'd say it very much is. As well as with free writing. But for the important stuff, I'm focused on the emotions, but I'm not feeling them personally. I'll read, and re-read. And ask myself if someone might get a different emotional impression from the thing I've written, and I'll try to see how I feel about reading it cold.
Ever heard of method acting? I wonder if method writing is a thing...
Often when I write, the starting idea morphs into something quite different by completion and as my thoughts spill on to the page, they in turn find and raise emotions, which then catalyse new thoughts.
Yeah, freewrites and poetry are like that for me.
In some way, I have always visualised my thoughts like music played on a piano...
This sounds a bit like how I've heard people describe sculpting. Not actual sculptors, mind you, but people pretending to be sculptors on tv... And in a way it's kind of how I code.
I am pretty sure that it is (at least for me) as when I write fiction I use this. Also, I spend time simulating various positions and situations to broaden and understand more of myself/life/people and it comes through my writing too I think.