When I am sad or heartbroken, the positive thing that I can usually take from it is poetry or short stories or journal entries. When I am happy, my creative writing blows. Never really written about puppies or sunsets – not well, anyway.
The past several years have been mostly a happy time for me. Is that why I haven’t been writing? Quite possibly. But at the beginning of the year, I made a renewed commitment to myself to keep going, keep writing. Even if it sucks. It’s something. Writing about rainbows is better than not writing at all, I suppose.
One of my techniques has been to play “pretend” – since I’m not really heartbroken, how would I feel if I were? At times, I listen to your stories, my friends and family, and I put myself in your corner of the room and I write from there.
In a couple of weeks I start a new journey as a novelist. So please, keep telling me your stories – I need the drama, I need the gossip, I need the material! And if my writing seems melancholy, don’t worry. After all, it’s only fiction.
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3 responses to “Bring on the drama: I need material”
I find it easier to write, especially poetry, when I’m kinda down too. I think poetry is visual emotion so when you’re at an extreme with emotions, the words are easier to find. Tool also gets me going… but then again, it’s because of the emotion and passion Maynard uses in his lyrics and melodies.
I agree on the writing during drama part! I’ve never thought of pretending to be in someone else’s shoes though.
That, my dear, is a healthy approach to writing. It’s funny. I’m so much the same way. When I’m sad, lonely or depressed, I write kick-ass stuff. But when I’m content, it’s like i can’t be bothered. I think it’s tectonic.
When you’re sad, your emotions are welling up, like magma to the surface, a volcano. It spills forth destroying everything in its path. But eventually, it cools and hardens into new land. Fertile land. And you can write again.
But being happy is like living in Kansas. Not much tectonic activity in Kansas. It’s hard to plow the same field over and over again expecting to produce something new.
I’m torn about this because I, like you, tend to prefer my sad writing to my happy writing. But I did NaNoWriMo in a reasonably good mood, so hopefully I was able to overcome the “Kansas effect” and produce something less than sucky.
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