Question for writers?

I don't romanticize writing like the screenwriter of Barton Fink. It's not a joy or a peace, it doesn't come from pain, it's not my soul or who I really am. It's just a thing I do, sometimes well enough to sell the results. What it is, for me, is work which I enjoy doing.

I read a book many, many times before I'm done with it. One of the steps I always take is to put it away for months, no peeking, specifically so I can read it as if someone else wrote it, seeing every flaw and weakness which were invisible when I had on my author hat.

Writing can BE a pain, and I like putting my characters in pain (they're pretty when they bleed, what can I say), but for me it doesn't come from pain. I'm not sure I get any peace from it either. Satisfaction in a job well done, more like, if I'm happy with something. Frustration when the words aren't coming. Joy when something awesome and unexpected happens. Unseemly glee when I can put a real hurt on a character, whether they deserve it or not. I am a terrible person, and I'm okay with that. Maybe my writing is an outlet so I don't choke actual human beings to death...

I think it's important to come at a book from both sides, as both reader and editor, no matter how hard it is to take off that Editing Hat. Since I'm writing stories I want to read, I think most of them are pretty spiffy--and if I didn't think they were spiffy, I wouldn't submit them for publication.

It's both really. Writing can bring pain out into the open to use within your story (and writing can also cause pain and frustration!) but it also allows you a way to work through your pain and understand your experiences and hopefully be able to make peace with it.

I can't really answer the second part yet as I'm still writing my first novel, so it will be a while before it's finished and edited to a suitable standard, but I hope at that point I will be able to sit and read it purely as a reader. After all, I think one of the reasons to write your own novel is to write something that you yourself want to read.

Writing is definitely from pain. Rather similar to having a baby - a lot of agony to produce something you dearly love. I have a quote around here somewhere saying that authors are people who have an unusually hard time writing.

Yes, I do go back and read my work, but it's really hard to do it without (metaphorically) picking up the red pencil. I always want it to be BETTER!

I write and it is peaceful, it takes me away from normal life and into a world that I created. When I read my books after, I pretend I have just bought it from a shop or as a present and I'm reading it as if I have no idea what will happen, then I see what I like or if I don't like it.

-Eh, it depends on the day. It's pain if I've just eaten a whole pizza, like today.

-All the time. I think I suck.