Monday 25 January 2010

Verdict so far?

For lots of reasons I won't go into, 2010 has not run terribly smoothly so far. At the moment I feel like I'm limping from one drama to the next. And it's only the end of January. One positive offshoot from my current 'oh woe is me' state is that my writing productivity has seen a small spike lately. The last time I was this miserable I was 15, hated school and wrote obsessively to escape from my festering pit of teenage depression.

This reminds me of something my current creative writing tutor said. He remarked that not all writing had to be a brutal, bearing open the soul process. Sometimes I'm not too sure about that. When I hit 18, I found myself happy. I had a good social circle, a course with little practical use for real life but something I enjoyed, a possible boyfriend (though that turned out to be an utter car crash....), a part-time job that awarded me some financial independence. Then I stopped writing.

Now I find myself scribbling away at the back of my notepad, writing random lines, pieces of dialogue, characters that have popped into my head: some to stay for a while, others just a flying visit. Perhaps I have to be a little bit miserable to want to write. That doesn't feel like an entirely bad thing. Now, when I refuse to come out of my flat and have stuck post its all over the floor then people should start worrying....

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe it's just that in down times you find yourself with something you want to express. Better to get this stuff out rather than keep it in I guess.

I really thought I was on to something more profound and thought provoking.

GW said...

Sorry to hear you're down.

I feel the social consumption of alcohol might solve this one. So let me know when you're free!