Comfort writing?

[Bubastes]

Is there a genre, style, or type of writing you turn to when you feel too drained to write anything else? I know some people journal to help them get through rough patches. For me, I'm finding that confession-style stories are my writing equivalent of mac and cheese. When real life gets too crazy, writing a 1st person POV story with specific style and content expectations is soothing rather than limiting for me. Maybe that's why readers are drawn to particular genres as well?

Am I being weird? Or do you experience something similar?

[stormie]

Nope, not weird at all. Unless...uh-oh. Maybe I am weird. Anyway, I turn to writing short rhyming poems. It's cathartic but also gets me writing something other than essays or short stories. And occasionally they get published. Very occasionally.

[KTC]

Roald Dahl-esque.

[nevada]

I turn to chocolate and my first manuscript which is a contemporary romance. it needs to be rewritten and i always return to it, thinking it'll be easy. it never is and i dont find the comfort i need. but chocolate works good.

[bsolah]

Flash fiction. Or abstract, totally weird horror stories/black comedies. i.e. Tim Tams killing devils on people's shoulders.

[ClaudiaGray]

I write fanfic to recharge and remind myself of the wonderful sense of play to be found in writing.

[Bubastes]

I write fanfic to recharge and remind myself of the wonderful sense of play to be found in writing.

I think you nailed it on the "play" part. Comfort writing allows me to play big time.

[virtue_summer]

Journaling. Yeah, I know typical but whatever. I also tend to write short pieces that don't really make a full story (beginning/middle/end) but are just sort of exercises in description or characterization, little bits of scenes that aren't intended to turn into anything else but just let me play around and try out different ways of describing things, working with different kinds of characters, etc.

[mscelina]

Strangely enough, bad poetry. Yep. There. I admitted it.

[Jersey Chick]

I have a series I've been writing for years that I doubt will ever see the light of day beyond my office - but I have three and a half books written (contemporary Stephanie-Plum type stories) - I work on them when I can't stand the thought of history in any shape or form. :D They're just for me and I like them.

[Kateri]

Yep, poetry as well. Bad? I'm not sure, but I like doing it anyway. It gets the stuff out of my head. It is quite passionate and outrageous. Not for public view though.

[Zinta]

I produce bad writing until I produce better writing. And then I go back and try to clean up the bad and make it better. Of course, there's always posting on forums ...

Or staring out the window and procrastinating.

[Horserider]

If I'm depressed I turn to food (usually sugary, unhealthy things like potato chips and ice cream) and can't write at all.

[Terri]

I do my English homework.

Not fun, but at least it stops me stressing over assignments that should have been submitted forever ago.

[Zelenka]

When I'm really fed up I play around with my little MG SF project. I've not the faintest idea how to go about writing it and really should get ahold of some kids' SF books, since all my SF experience is through TV and films, but I love playing around with the plot and adding bits and pieces to the characters.

[tehuti88]

I find that I online journal when I can't really write/focus on my fiction. However, I can't really turn to that when I have nothing to say in a journal entry. My life mostly consists of watching wild birds eat, buying books online, and...writing. :/ So sometimes I really have nothing to say, and that's frustrating.

Sometimes I also type up dreams I've had, but that only applies when I have a recent one in mind that I remember.

I don't consider it "play," though...play, for me, still has to have focus to it. Writing fiction is my play, but play still has rules. With journaling and dream journaling, I'm just writing, and the only rules are that I have to spell things right and use proper grammar; I don't have to follow rules of plot and such. It's more like relaxing on the rules than "playing."

Oh yes, sometimes I also indulge in typing up stuff about my characters and plots, just fluffy stuff that isn't part of a story but is just me thinking things over. Pretending my stories are movies and writing summaries of them as would appear in a review and such. :o

[Lyra Jean]

I write romances. I've never actually finished one but that's not the point. They usually are not good anyways.

[Matera the Mad]

Fanfic, weird haiku...or I just generate fractals and play Solitaire, unless I'm in the mood to torture a few pixels.

[BrittaMoline]

Mostly nonfiction, just like when I'm not comfort writing, except this nonfiction has no real audience outside other geeks like myself. So many essays dissecting Iron Man . . .

If I can't manage that, then online role playing is a fun exercise as long as I don't allow it to replace my 'real' writing.

[dreamsofnever]

I write fanfic to recharge and remind myself of the wonderful sense of play to be found in writing.

Glad I'm not the only one! Fanfic is absolutely my comfort writing. That and venting to my journal, but I prefer the fanfic. lol.

Especially because I usually get very fast, very generous responses to my fanfic so it's always nice to write, post, and then wake up the next day to some nice compliments on the work.

It also keeps my muse flowing to write a fanfic when I'm too upset/stressed/uninspired to write on my novel. :)