I remember when I wrote as a teenager, it was usually something I did when I was feeling sad. The negative energy fed into my creativity and provided me with a nice escape from whatever it was that made me unhappy. It was good, in a way, because it meant that if I was feeling unhappy, the upside was that I’d be productive with my writing. I guess the downside was that it meant that I was more inclined to write stories with unhappy endings or a darker tone.
At some point (I’m not sure when) there was a shift within me. Rather than drawing creative energy from negative emotions, I started drawing it from positive emotions. I think it might have coincided with writing becoming a communal activity for me, as opposed to a solitary one.
When I started university, most stories that I wrote were going to be read but a lot of people. There were close friends in particular who I always enjoyed sharing things with too. Often I was driven by my desire to share my work with others and I’d look forward to seeing their reactions to my work. It was around that same time that I also started keeping this blog, which further helped to make my writing more of a communal activity.
I think that my writing turns out better when it’s driven by positive emotions, but that does also mean that I need to be in a good mood in order to get some writing done. It’s also possible that it isn’t the shift in my mood that’s created the increase in quality, but rather the fact that I’ve learned more about writing in those years.
Nonetheless, I do think that my writing has benefited from approaching it with a more positive mind-frame. If you’re a writer, I think it’s definitely worth taking this into consideration to see how much it affects the quality of your own work.
