Does anyone else get moody?

Just a thought: Maybe your outlines and notes are keeping you from writing that dark novel. Let your characters take you where they want to go.

Towerkel said:

Does anyone else find themselves in this kind of situation? Should I just suck it up and write what I have, or what? Ugh.

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All the time. I recommend listening to 'dark' music to get you in the mood. Or watch 'dark' paintings, or anything else that might get your muse going.

If all else fails, BIC.

It may well be that if the projects were better planned, they would gain their own momentum regardless of mood.

This is why I have two projects going right now. Depending on what mood I'm in, I'll work on one over the other. No shame in that.

I think one mark of a professional is the ablity to get the job done--whatever the job may be--regardless of "mood". Peter De Vries said, "I write when I'm inspired, and see to it that I'm inspired at nine o'clock every morning."

Moody? Check the board for major examples of that lol

Mood

My mood doesn't change with the novel I'm writing. Writing is writing, adn I think the mark of a pro is sitting down and writing no matter what mood you're in.

I don't go bi-polar or anything like that, but I have to change moods depending on what I'm writing very much like an actor has to get into character.

I wont snap when my sweet thing brings me breakfast if I'm writing something warlike. But I might give her a passionate kiss if I'm writing good romance.

I think I tend to find the zone from whence my best inspiration to write what ever I'm writing comes. To that extent I'guess it could be considered a mood.

newfieval said:

Moody? Check the board for major examples of that lol

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I had to laugh at that.

Ooh! Just remembered! The two songs that are a cure-all for my happy mood are by these not-so-mainstream bands.

First, My Wall by the band SUNN O))).

And, even more effective and easily the most depressing song I know, The Dead Flag Blues by Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

Never heard of them? I'm not surprised; I still love them and they're good for getting that dark mood.

I do like to be in a "mood" when writing certain things because I think my writing is stronger, clearer, and will elicit emotion from the reader better if I'm actually feeling the emotion as I write. I use music to set certain moods all the time and have reliable pieces that can help me become absorbed in pretty much any mood I want.


Beth

Jamesaritchie said:

My mood doesn't change with the novel I'm writing. Writing is writing, adn I think the mark of a pro is sitting down and writing no matter what mood you're in.

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Ahhh I see the mark of a journalist. LOL I agree, but I believe it also takes practice to be able to do that. As you know, when we HAVE to have it on the page for the presses, we HAVE to have it on the page for the presses regardless of our mood that day. I know others train themselves to do it as well, but in the paper business you don't have a choice so I think you become trained to write regardless of mood very early on. I am working on a novel outline that I am sometimes not in the mood to do because of other committments but I force myself each day to do a little bit more. <Crossing fingers I can keep it up even though I don't have a deadline staring me in the face!>

cw37066 said:

Ahhh I see the mark of a journalist. LOL I agree, but I believe it also takes practice to be able to do that. As you know, when we HAVE to have it on the page for the presses, we HAVE to have it on the page for the presses regardless of our mood that day. I know others train themselves to do it as well, but in the paper business you don't have a choice so I think you become trained to write regardless of mood very early on. I am working on a novel outline that I am sometimes not in the mood to do because of other committments but I force myself each day to do a little bit more. <Crossing fingers I can keep it up even though I don't have a deadline staring me in the face!>

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I hadn't thought about it, but that's probably a very good point. Journalism does, indeed, teach exactly this. Whatever needs to be written must be written right now, or even yesterday, and there's never time to wait until the right mood comes along.

We were taught this beginning in Journalism 101, and the same lesson was repeated over and over as different classes, professors, and years came and went.

I can't tell you how many times we were handed a sheet with bare bones facts listed on it, and were told to turn this into a feature article, or a column, or a human interest piece before class ended.

Journalims also teaches you to write when you're sick, when you have a hangover, when you're going through a divorce, on and on. There's a deadline, often only hours away, and the paper won't wait.

Oddly enough, I also had an English 101 class (A ninety minute class that made scheduling the day a nightmare.) where the prof made us write a lengthy essay on a subject of her choosing the moment we were all seated, and it counted on the grade.