About Angry Work

Post 549:

            There are days when the last thing I want to do is look at the page. I can’t see the story and all the composite parts; my brain’s a stew of dead synapses.

            It makes me mad. Or frustrated. Or something. Whatever it is, the feeling is less than optimal.

            If I man up, the seizing feeling can be ignored and I dutifully soldier on. This is best. There are times when anger is good for creativity. Unless you’re writing something without conflict—but if that’s the case—boring!

            Frustration can manifest in cool character moments or they can simply act as a spur, forcing you through the drought.

            I don’t believe in keeping my emotions quarantined from my work. First of all, it’s impossible. Second, there’s a reason it’s you writing and not someone else. If you think there’s reasons. Humor me and assume there’s reasons.

            The truth is, once I get going and get to work, the excess emotion usually fades away into the page, allowing progress to resume.

            That’s a good thing, because nobody wants to read only the manifestations of your emotional oscillations. They want to read that, plus a good story. So insert yourself, but try not to make it obvious all the time.

            Then again, some writers insert themselves into the whole story and it goes swimmingly. If you can pull it off, who am I to say otherwise.

            Write angry. It’s better than driving angry. Or going to bed angry.

            I know. Some argument.

            Cheers and see you after.