What is Your Writing Mood?

There is the old stereotype of the struggling artist who finds their greatest creative inspirations from a deep sense of frustration trying to make their internal world fit in with the external world. So, does one need to be depressed and full of angst to write?

The cynic in me says that this is some kind of justification used by artists to cope or explain away the fact that they are not earning huge money or finding success according to some arbitrary expectation of societal norms.

However, as a writer, I find that I definitely have a lot more material available when I am in a state of angst — with others around me, with myself, with dialogues heard or conversations had. Yet, what usually motivates me most to write is when I have a message that I feel needs to be shared.

When I was in college I took a creative writing class. The stories that I wrote for the class that were contrived from some kind of twenty-something angst or limited view of the world were not greatly received. However, when I wrote a piece wanting to send a message to the close-minded classmates and professors who thought their status as ‘writers’ gave them freedom to criticize without empathy or compassion, that was applauded even though the intended audience were blind to their own learnings from it.

My best pieces seem to come from social commentary rather than just the character sketches and stories that I want to tell. I’m not sure what the label of that writing mood would be, but I try to channel it when I can.

How about you? What mood motivates you to open 📖 the sunshine ☀️ into your heart ❤️ to tell the stories📚 we all have waiting to be told?