Does anyone else notice how much real life influences our writing, as our text reflects our emotions we feel in real life,which are influenced by the events around us. For me as i was developing my story it started out as my happy place, but with years it became more dark and depressing as my own life was becoming harder by the day, and found hard to concentrate on a happy place when i can't feel it. Now i know in general its not a bad thing, most of the great people took experience and emotions of their own life and created a master piece, like J.K Rowling for example, you can feel her depression in Harry Potter books (one of the reasons i didn't like the series too depressing for me). So i'm interested how do others here find solution and how they write when they feel angry,sad or depressed, do you write and go with the flow or take a break as your emotions may alter the original story line?
I don't find that, personally. At least, I hope it's not true of me. I often write about violent and angry people, of which I am neither. Their journey back from the dark side is one of my favourite parts of writing. I suppose you could think of it as taking characters and making them more human. If you emotions are bleeding into your writing, then why not channel them effectively? If you're writing when angry, write a scene where a character is experiencing something similar, etc.
Pops actually brings up something I do when feeling certain emotions. Usually though, I try not to write when I'm in a certain emotional state (like being angry) because, more times then not, I find that it affects my writing a little too much, and in the end my writing doesn't make much sense at all. So when I am feeling a certain way, and I feel like writing, I usually turn on some music (usually mixed variety) and block out everything, both internal and external. After a while, I find that the music helps me relax and that I can write without my emotions flooding my writing.
There is no question that my life experiences have influenced my writings. But I would say that rarely has that meant that my writing reflects my emotional state. In fact, the opposite has probably more often been the case: in times of severe challenge and stress, my writing (and the world about which I was writing) was more of a refuge for me, a way to preserve something as my own. Which is not to say that at times of sadness I would necessarily write happy stuff. But that whatever I was writing at the time, even tragedy, made me happy. Only once did I ever set out to write something to incorporate a specific life experience - something negative that I had experienced. It turned into something very different as I wrote it.
one of the greatest side benefits to being a writer is that you can escape the life you're leading at the moment, via your writing... no matter what i'm working on at the time, all else drops away while i'm writing, fades into the background... so, i can easily focus only on the words and pay no attention to how i'm feeling about what's going on in my life... and, if i happen to be working on a piece of fiction when reality's birds drop their little gifts, being immersed in the fictional world i've created provides an umbrella...
I agree that life experience can help a lot with our writing, and how even writing someone's tragedy can make us feel happy, not that we are sick people who enjoy others suffering, but cause we created and the feeling of accomplishing something makes us feel good. But can you create a genuine happy world so that a reader can feel it is really genuine if you dont feel happy at the time you write it? So its sort of like meditation? I tried for sometime meditation, and while i can say it helps clear the mind, never tried it as a way of preparing to write, will need to test it and see how it goes... I always viewed writing a story is a heart and soul thing, as its easier to paint a picture of something if you feel it, so does it take more training and discipline to write about anything and make it really feel genuine, or is it a matter of how much a writer is talented?
no, that's not what i said... though, if meditation helps you, use it... i only meant that immersing myself in the work is a buffer that keeps personal problems at bay...
Real life experiences and just living life should give you some great equipment to write with. It doesn't matter what your genre is. For example, a visit to a new town or city could inspire a setting. Or if one of your friends is an attorney, perhaps you can pump his mind for information and mold of your characters into an attorney from that info. Always observe what's going on around you. Inspiration is everywhere.
