Everyone knows that writing and emotions go hand-in-hand. What I’m trying to figure out these days is exactly what the relationship is for me between writing and emotions when the emotions of my life are intense and almost feel out of control.
People who know me well know that I’ve been going through some really rough transitions in my life and in my work. And people who know me at all know that I deal with things in large part through writing about them.
What’s difficult for me is the whole idea of pouring your emotions into your art. Because the reality is that what I’m writing right now is not anything creative. I’m not taking the pain of life and pouring it into a novel. I’m not exploring the depth of my emotions through intense poetry or attempts at writing sad song lyrics.
What I am doing is writing in my journal a lot. Every day. Sometimes several times a day. Writing mostly mundane things that couldn’t ever be read and appreciated by someone else because the writing isn’t good – it’s just raw and ridiculous and honest in that complex way that emotions are.
I’ve also been writing letters, mostly unsent letters, because sometimes the only way to get a handle on the emotions that involve other people is to sit down and write them out as if you were saying everything you wanted to say to those people, regardless of whether or not they’re around to read what you’ve written.
What I wish life and writing could be like is that the pure raw painful emotions of life could be immediately transmuted into great literary art. I wish that I could say, “I’m going to write through this awful time to get the depth of my emotions down on paper”.
What I think it’s like instead is that I’ll sit and write those journals and letters and rambling emails and occasional blog posts because that’s what I need to do to understand myself better right now. And that writing itself will never become art. But what I hope it does is get me to a place where I can know what’s going on with me and my emotions and therefore have the potential to write creatively in the future when I am in a better place.
What do you think – how do your emotions and writing go hand in hand?
Writing and Emotions has 4 Comments
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November 12th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
When I write poems my emotions rule. Always, since my first few lines, I have used poetry to say things I’m too emotional to say face to face. It is kinda like therapy I suppose. Once I’ve vented I’m much calmer AND I have a nice creation to show for it. At first, like the first few years, I didn’t really acknowledge that this was going on. I felt like I was “inspired by some outside force. Now I realize that I’m the source of that force. It may involve other people but the drive to communicate is all mine. Thanks for giving me a place outside of Mixx to add my part. Funny how few poems I write now that I can comment on things in social networking. It will probably be my poetry’s undoing.
November 27th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Cheers!
xoxo
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December 23rd, 2008 at 12:23 pm
My emotions definitely influence the intensity of my words as well as the frequency of my writing. For example, when I am angry, I could literally write a novel in one day. My writing is feverish and my thoughts come quicker than I can take them down. Oddly enough, I am really focused when I’m angry, instead of my normal scatterbrained self. Being sad usually brings me writer’s block. I don’t relish the fact of being angry in order to make a successful living as a writer, so I am working hard towards finding more positive inspiration. P. S. I’m not angry now, so that’s a step in the right direction!
October 10th, 2011 at 1:19 am
Hi there,
the idea universe extends accelerated. The rain of words forms mighty streams of sentences that end in the see of tales.
My heart runs faster, when I imagine, that my brain condense some thoughts, that will form some drops imersed in emotion. That these words will evoke emotions in the reader, and hopefully, help him to life a better live (in the moment of reading)…
Do you know a book in which there is a collection of emotion-producing sentences (e.g. for disgust, anger, fear, surprise, hapiness, sadness).
thank you
a emotional good week
swissball