I just found out why my creativity is gone (this could help you as well)

I've actually found that, while my creativity has not changed much, my coherence definitely has.

Now I want to start another mental illness thread, but I predict that ending very badly. Again.

 

My coherence is terrible and my thoughts are scattered to the winds, so hopefully this is my experience, too.

This seems like a thread I want to be a part of. Can you make it protected or something?

 

Well I can't. And I'm not sure how the mod team would do that. They would probably point out that there are forum's for the mental ill to congregate. But I have some advice for anyone looking to join one of those:

Mental Illness forums are full of crazy people.

PM for the story.

 

Well, we could ask them for a sub-section of the Debate section (or a pinned thread) that lets us talk about mental illnesses and ways to cope with/deal with it. The reason it'd be in the Debate section because it's likely going to be the most heavily moderated part of the site.

 

You're just faking it for attention.

 

I like the idea of a subforum, because these kinds of issues do pop up from time to time.

 

Yes put all us nuts in a corner.

 

<Sigh!>

 

I don't know, I guess we can ask @Wreybies to look into it. It would be nice, but I don't think he'll go for it.

 

I think we could probably relate a lot. I hope I'm not repeating what someone else already said, either.

I joke about writing being an addiction. But, it used to seriously be one for me. Eventually, I reached a point in my life where I had to stop letting myself get addicted to things--so that I was the one in control of my life, and not the squirrels running by (figuratively).

I'll be honest, I'm still working out a lot of kinks when it comes to my relationship with writing. However, I found that once I realized that I was the one holding the reins, I stopped and tried to look at what exactly made me happy in life. Like, what situations in my life really moved me, made me angry, made me stop in awe and wonder? I accepted those things for whatever they were (like I have a weird love for plants that almost always pops up in my stories). I use those things and craft around them to develop ideas, settings, characters, and situations. In the end I have something that I feel connected and inspired by, something that I have chosen, not that has automatically been chosen by the little butterfly that happened to flit by and lead me to it...if that makes sense?

I can't get into writing the same way I did in the past, now that I don't obsess about it (which I used to). I would just let the story take over before, when I was 'addicted'. It was like a high. Now, I have to think about what I want it to become. I can't let it just dwindle down wherever it takes me. I have to choose and consciously channel the things that move me, that make me feel.

No more random...to a degree. Instead of escapism, you instead begin constructively building something, rather than slipping away into a lesser something. (I hope I'm not confusing you, lol.)

Another way to think about this--there is yin and yang energy in the world. If you are used to being the yin, and the writing is leading, it is the yang. When you take the lead (yang energy) your writing will have to transition to yin energy. You then supply the lead and the energy, not the other way around. Instead of feeding off the process, the process feeds off you, and you have control (instead of the writing).

Personally, it's not an easy transition. (For me, that is--I don't want to project here. Everything works differently for different people). Honestly, its been a journey for me. All I know is that I love writing, and that, in the end (even if sometimes only the memory of the love of it when I'm struggling) is what keeps me going. It's almost like figuring out a new rhythm, a new relationship with writing.

It's sometimes painful, but definitely worth it.

 

@Wreybies can we have a subforum to discuss mental health issues and various coping methods? Please?

 

I've been tagged enough times in this thread that to not respond would be louder than responding, so...

Firstly, it's not my decision. It's Daniel's. The forum's "physical" structure and attributes are dynamics that remain in his hands only.

Secondly...

I had a super-long diatribe I was going to post and then realized I was rambling into areas no one is going to want to listen to, so I'll give the short version:

Pretend you are a member of staff at a forum devoted to the writing of poems, stories, and novels. Now imagine you find yourself tasked with dealing with an area that has abso-frakking-lutely nothing to do with the forum (the Debate Room), a subforum that causes more trouble than all the other sub-forums combined, an area you would literally pay hard earned cash to the forum owner for the privilege of deleting it forever and ever and evah. Now imagine that someone asks to have another area added to the area in question - an area already attracting the wrong crowd with a very questionable mindset - and that all this pulls even more time away from modding the rest of the forum and from your own participation in the forum because, after all, you too are still a member of the forum. You came here because you wanted to talk about and learn about writing.

I've occasionally thought about asking for an LGBTQ area for the forum because the number of threads on LGBTQ topics running at any given time is amazing, anomalous. I mean, a tumble in the sheets with Wreybies is guaranteed to be a fun tumble, but you're not going to commune with god or go into the avatar state or anything. And yet thread after thread after thread after thread... The way LGBTQ threads tend to evolve in the Debate Room has completely checked my wish to add a sub-forum specifically for LGBTQ topics. Knowing how close I am to that subject and watching people who couldn't borrow a clue to know what it is to walk in my shoes state opinions about my life and my paradigm as though their opinions were more factual and concrete than my actual lived life, causes me to image one-on-one scenarios with those people that are most certainly illegal in most civilized countries. So, maybe Daniel will one day add an LGBTQ sub-forum given the stonking number of threads on related topics, but it won't be because I asked for it.

It's a writing forum, folks, not thepork.org.

 

Thanks, @Wreybies. I appreciate your response. And, no, I don't want to see the mods' jobs become more difficult.

When I lent my support to this idea, it wasn't with a view to a subforum unrelated to writing (you may recall I was deeply opposed to the establishment of the Debate Room, and subsequent events have done nothing to change my mind). Rather, it was because the issue of writers struggling with the effects of mental illness pops up continually. Moreover, on more than one occasion, I have seen members who are neither victims of mental illness nor qualified professionals opine on matters about which they have little or no actual knowledge. And, as we all know, mental health is an area in which what you don't know can hurt you a whole lot. My own view is that a dedicated subforum would likely foster the kind of support-group discussion, focused on both mental health challenges and writing, that a portion of our membership would find helpful, while at the same time reducing the likelihood that amateur psychologists and other interlopers would intrude with unhelpful opinions.

 

I think I hear what you're saying. We need every thread in the forum to eventually devolve into a discussion about mental illness in order to get a mental illness room.

It all seems so simple now.

 

Lol, is that an invitation to join every thread in the forum?

 

When i need inspiration i google random stuff that crops up in my story and i always find something that triggers a new line of thought. The other technique is a bottle of wine and loud music on the earphones

 

Alrighty, I'll just try to get back to the topic of inspiration and creativity, too.
There are exactly three things that make me want to write.

1. What-if-thoughts. Since I often get bored (even in conversations), I tend to space out and eventually get hung up on something else. What if there is someone watching us on cameras, laughing about how we just live our lifes without a clue he is there? What if ghosts really exist and try to talk to us, but can't see or hear them? What if we actually have special abilities, but just don't know how to use them? You get what I mean. It doesn't have to be a rational thought.

2.People. If you spend a lot of time in public transportation, like me, you see all kinds of people. And some are just interesting to watch. The way they talk or look at others, their outfits or their general attitude. That always leads me to the question, how someone ended up like that. What made them act the way they do now, what is their story? Thinking about this can really make you want to write it down.

3. Other books. This effects me in two ways:
3.1. I end up writing a fanfiction, using characters and other to put them into a situation I came up with, trying to mantain their trades and yet make them one of my own.
3.2. I just get so pumped up by the awesomeness of the work of another author, that it just makes me want to write, even if it's just a journal entry for a diary or whatever. But it usually get's me motivated.

I have no idea if these things work for anyone else, but I thought I could just share my experience in this.

 

I am like Obsidian - I am a very creative individual. I draw, sketch, paint, play flute [violin & was once toying with grand piano], love taking photographs & photography, I don't really dance as I have two utterly left feet, but I have acted in two minor plays and even partook as an actress in a battle re-enactment venture. That's not including music - I love working on lyrics [two of my songs have been adopted by my friend with the European band] - and poetry is my go to when feeling incredibly bored and/or suffering quite a bit of writer's block & I don't want to really think on what I am writing.

However, unlike some of the other people who have commented I have not suffered one single issue - depression, OCD, etc. - in my life. Not once.

So I seriously agree with the "labeling creativity as the product of a troubled mind is a huge oversimplification" ... if creativity is the result of a troubled mind than some of the most creative people in human history must have been rather [no insult to anyone] "screwed in the head" as some would say. And though some of them have been acknowledged as troubled, a majority had no known problems.

Personally I think creativity is in a way genetic - or at least motivated in part by family life. My father is creative; my uncle [well dad's 1st cousin, but that side of the family is closely knit so he's more like an uncle - helps his daughter is just 2 years older than me] is exceptionally artistic in music and touches on themes that had he been born a couple decades earlier he'd be one of those people made infamous for "being before his time". My mother's side has a number of people in theatre / movie acting and other entertainment themes.




However as EdFromNY said, it all depends on the writer.

I will listen to music when thinking and/or writing - usually picking music on the theme I am wanting to write. So a dark theme, I'd pick some hard metal band to listen to or some darkly themed music. Lighter theme, some well favored rock band I can relax to. Noble theme, I throw on classical typically or Phantom of the Opera [Crawford, none of those want-a-bes that came after compare]. Intense theme, I've found myself favoring the music by Two Steps from Hell really.

I can just as readily find inspiration from people watching. Marina, a character in the same story as Tobias in my signature, came to life by simply watching a woman at the local university while waiting for my brother to finish taking a 4 hour exam for his program. She was absentminded [she went away three times, came back because she forgot first her purse - then her drink - and then her jacket when she finally left]... and sort of flaky - but despite this aspect of her she was having an absolute blast. She seemed like fun - she became the scatter-headed but lovable Marina who walks about with a diary / notepad because on more than one occasion has had to be reminded to take this or that with her, go get this person, etc.



As for writer's block - lack of creativity.

I've been toying with this non-fiction book for 3 years. Typically I can type out non-fiction with ease - fiction is my way of working around writing blocks by focusing on something else - however, I can't even write fiction. First I am too busy right now and secondly the sheer hassle behind the non-fiction has put a pamper on the enjoyment of writing. If not for the simple fact I want this book done - after all that research - I'd have tossed it months ago.

 

Never, ever go off medication against physicians' advice. I am schizophrenic and bipolar, amongst other things, and have gone off my meds in search of lucidity, acuity, and creativity several times. As a consequence of the resultant chaos, I've been under involuntary holds and treatment orders several times, and, to this day, am on mandatory monthly injections of antipsychotics. I don't intend (rationally) to go off my meds ever again.

 

My wife is reading a book right now that might interest you, Page Fright. One of the things it talks about is how various writers handle this type of thing.

A lot of writers have OCD, depression or bipolar disorder (I'm bipolar) and according to Page Fright, it may very well be what gives creative types their edge, their ability to create.

I was on medication for a while when I went back to college about ten years ago, but after two semesters, I found myself totally dry creatively. And even though I stopped the medication, it took almost ten years for me to find my creative juices again and get them flowing.

I was a smoker most of my life (age 9 to 58) and that kept me stable, kept me from tearing my life apart. But now, of course, all the anti-smoking bullshit has turned that into a whole new daemon, not to mention how expensive it's become. Two years ago, I finally quit, but after nine months, I was getting so unstable again, I started vaping nicotine. It's helped a lot (and it's way cheaper than smoking) but I still need my three cups of coffee per day to keep my dopamine levels high enough to write.

I've tried many things, but in my experience, the best way to deal with any type of emotional ailment is meditation as opposed to medication.

It's no fun having to choose between creativity and stability. My heart goes out to you.

 

Always choose your health over perceived greater "creativity". Always.

 

Hear, hear. Health far exceeds creativity any day. You can manage it, yes. With me, it's through exercise and meditation but health is the most important.

 

Maybe, maybe nicotine roulette and a dash of rum to fifty-eight beats the long linger in a tracksuit.

 

So that's what I've been doing wrong. I'm thinking Umbro.

 

Dude Umbros went out in the 80's. Back then you weren't cool unless you had a pair of those and you 'pegged' your jeans.