Today I like: Brown. I have this new brown dress, and brown is an underrated color
Not so much: too much quiet
I’ve had some crazy stuff going on in my personal life lately. No need to go into it, but it’s life-altering, emotionally draining stuff. I’ve had several people say to me comments along the lines of:
“Well, now you have great inspiration for you books!”
“Let it all out on the page!”
“Put all that emotion to good use.”
Now, I’m sure these people have very good intentions. From where I sit, however, I’ve realized that the idea that an artist can dump all his or her emotions into the creative process does not hold much truth. Maybe it’s different for visual artists, or musicians…but what I’ve realized is this: It takes ALOT of emotion to craft believable fiction.
It’s an emotionally exhausting process in itself. You must live inside your characters, and their feelings. You have to breath their joy and pain in and out of your own lungs. When your chest is full of your own real emotions, there’s not much space for fictitious ones.
I was definitely in my most frantic, obsessively productive writing place during a time in my life when I didn’t have much going on at all, negative or positive, in my own emotional life. I could channel everything that wasn’t happening into the lives of my characters.
Now, I’m sort of drained, and it’s a bit harder to find the energy to create realistic emotional lives for my imaginary friends. This doesn’t mean these experiences won’t show up someday, when I’m more able to process them. When I’m in the thick of it, however, myself is more than enough.
How about you, writers? Do you agree with me, or can you channel your emotions in the here and now?
You are absolutely right, Stephanie. I write music, too, and for me it is possible to take emotion and channel it into the piano, then get lost in the creative process, leave the bad vibes outside my person. But when you’re talking about words, words and characters and emotions…that’s a totally different ballgame. Maybe someday you’ll be able to process it all and use it. For now, go easy on yourself. Spend your energy on the non-emotionally draining tasks!
Thanks, K! It’s hard when being unproductive makes you feel worse…but I’m cutting myself a bit of slack. xoxo
I found that mid-level stress translated into a high level of writing productivity. High-stress? None. When my daughter died, I just stopped writing. For like two years, no fiction at all. And when I was able to get back into writing fiction, I couldn’t touch infant loss at all. It took six years until I finally had a story that dealt with infant loss, and another year after that, I finally wrote a story that dealt with the emotions of the loss (although not with regard to a baby.)
I think we write our emotions best when we write them slantwise. So a woman who gets divorced, for example, might not write about a divorce but might channel those feelings into a character who’s fired from the job he’s dreamed of since childhood and devoted the past ten years of his life to.
I’m sorry you’re struggling right now.
Thanks so much! I can’t imagine the grief of losing a child…puts things in perspective.
You are so right about this. I was juggling some pretty powerful issues during the last year and whereas I could easily blog about it, creating fiction, even polishing fiction that was already written was just too much to ask of myself.
So glad you agree, Jane! At least it seems like I’m in good company! Thought maybe I was an outlier…
Personally, I’m a bit of an escapist. I was in a very bad place for a couple years, with no real means of escape. I lost myself in the problems of my characters in an effort to escape my own. Had my characters been having the same problems I was having, it would not have been much of an escape. I think the emotion breathed into fiction is best when it has had time to heal.
I totally agree with you, Stephanie. Just because we’re experiencing certain emotions in our lives doesn’t mean they should all be put on the page—in most instances, we’ll actually need time to process and distance ourselves from it all before it can be of any use. If not, we risk getting TOO caught up in the emotion of it all, and not enough on all other elements of great fiction. Writing isn’t just about transferring everything we’re going through onto paper, so it’s not always as easy as “insert current emotion here.”
Hope you’re feeling better soon! xoxo
Hey y’all! thanks for stopping by. It seems we have different takes on this– I WISH I could channel it all right now…would be good stuff!
Someday! xo
I think it varies per individual AND per situation… But you make such a GREAT point that it is emotionally exhausting to live inside your characters, and their feelings. Breathing their joy and pain in and out of your own lungs IS taxing. I hope things are looking a little brighter? Hang in there, girl.
No… when I’m going through emotionally draining stuff, I can’t channel it into my fiction — and I can’t really write fiction at all. Sometimes I can just write for myself and it helps but sometimes I just need to take care of myself… sorry I missed this post when it first came out (not online much), but I hope you’re doing better now… xoxo
Thanks, my sweet friends! Seems like we’re all a bit distracted at the moment…but remember if y’all need me I’m just a Tweet away.
xo
So, so sorry to hear that you are going through a difficult time! I hope that things have gotten better since then.
My writing actually became very productive when I was unhappy with my work situation, but not because I was channeling all my frustration into my writing. Instead, I saw it as a way to escape.
As for the idea that you have to experience trauma first-hand in order to write about it, well, that’s what creativity and imagination are for.
Oh yes, Stephanie, I definitely agree, whenever my life gets too tumultuous the dream factory in my head totally shuts down. There’s just no room! Our own strong emotions crowd everything else out. As you say, we must breath in and breath out our characters emotions.
I find I need some stability. Even too much outside work can make writing hard. And certainly some disturbance like you are dealing with can cause turmoil and just throw everything off.
I hope you are alright. I recently had a really unpleasant experience with someone who I thought was a friend and it upset me so much I couldn’t write for days. These things pass, and I know you know that too, but that doesn’t stop them from being a very real pain (dang!!) when we are I their midst.
(((hugs)))