Does Emotional Status Effect Your Writing?

Amy_D · Oct 31, 2014

phantasy said:
I like writing for the fact that it simply fills up my brain space. Seriously, way better to write something that could be good someday than spend my time thinking how my life sucks and I'll never amount to anything. I'm a horrendous over-thinker and worrier.

That being said, when I'm angry, I like to write horror.

I'm a big psychological thriller reader if someone isn't being emotionally screwed in a book I'm not interested. LOL.

Amy_D · Oct 31, 2014

Roxxsmom said:
When I'm depressed I tend to be very low energy and to doubt myself terribly (and to be very self critical). It's caused me to abandon my writing efforts for long periods in the past, so yes, it definitely affects my writing.

I have different characters in my stories, though, and they fall along a spectrum of moods. I think I have a fondness for characters who doubt themselves in some way, however. To me, stories about rock-jawed heroes who never doubt themselves or the goodness of their goals aren't terribly realistic or interesting.

There are times when I do get so depressed that writing is the last think I want to do. But like now, when I'm OK, my characters all seem to have serious issues.

milkweed · Oct 31, 2014

Maybe you should team up with another writer, I have the exact opposite problem I need a couple of my characters to be dark and brooding and yet they are anything but.

Layla Nahar · Oct 31, 2014

Hmm. I think it might be best to go with what's coming naturally. Maybe you'll get it out of your system & you'll find that you're writing differently.

Amy_D · Nov 1, 2014

milkweed said:
Maybe you should team up with another writer, I have the exact opposite problem I need a couple of my characters to be dark and brooding and yet they are anything but.

Make sarcasm your friend and your characters will brood and wallow.

gettingby · Nov 1, 2014

There are endless possibilities with fiction and no need to make our characters clones of ourselves. When I started writing, my characters were loose versions of myself. When I abandoned that practice, my writing got much better. Use fiction to explore more than the world you live in. You can have so much fun writing. Do you really want to fill your fiction world with the same problems you face in the real one?

That said, I do think there is a connection between the way we feel and the way we write. I go the opposite way you do. The worse my life gets, the funnier my fiction gets. Often fiction writing has served as a great distraction from some of life's problems. Don't feel like you have to write depressed characters because that's what you know. Don't limit yourself.

Buffysquirrel · Nov 1, 2014

gettingby said:
Do you really want to fill your fiction world with the same problems you face in the real one?

No. But depression isn't the elephant in the room; it's the elephant in your head. Much harder to ignore that way! lol

Ken · Nov 1, 2014

always remember one thing. if you feel a certain way, millions of others likely do too and will be interested in what you have to say, no matter what that may be. so don't devalue your perspective. it has worth

Amy_D · Nov 2, 2014

Buffysquirrel said:
No. But depression isn't the elephant in the room; it's the elephant in your head. Much harder to ignore that way! lol

Well put. When you're sad I think it's natural that the dialogue that flows out of the characters mouth will be negative. I've been writing fiction since 2010 but I still consider myself a new writer. Prior to 2010 I only wrote papers for school.

Amy_D · Nov 2, 2014

Ken said:
always remember one thing. if you feel a certain way, millions of others likely do too and will be interested in what you have to say, no matter what that may be. so don't devalue your perspective. it has worth

Thank you Ken. That's sweet.

Does Emotional Status Effect Your Writing?

Amy_D

Awake in the present moment.

Amy_D

Awake in the present moment.

milkweed

Abuses commas at will.

Layla Nahar

Seashell Seller

Amy_D

Awake in the present moment.

gettingby

Buffysquirrel

Ken

Amy_D

Awake in the present moment.

Amy_D

Awake in the present moment.