Do I have to be depressed to write? You guys are all serious

Last week I randomly experienced a few days of being happier than I'd been in years, but what you might call my "creative energies" died away almost completely. Normally I feel pretty excited, creatively, whether it's writing or fantasizing in my head or trying to make my friends laugh. Not serious creative work, but the point is that I've always felt flowing in me a "performative" energy. When I became happier, though, I changed; I became very appreciative of other people's work, but lost interest in making my own. Instead of trying to be the funniest person in the room, I was more appreciative of my friends' attempts to be funny, and I noticed they were funnier than I'd given them credit for before. What I was reading became more interesting, and less threatening, because I wasn't comparing it with what I could do. I felt less driven to write fiction, but I think the ideas that did occur to me were better, deeper, than the ideas I normally have. Whereas I'm normally attracted to absurdity and surrealism, while happy I was more attracted to realism. A few days went by, though, and I returned to my normal depressed self. So anyway my personal conclusion from this is that I think there's a connection between depression and creativity, that depression can give you a "charge," sort of possess you, but that you can be carried away by ideas that you would see as naive and mediocre if you were happier and saw them from a higher vantage point.

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pain and the fear of death compel me to write, so I will write until I learn to smile at pain and inevitable nothingness.

>You guys are all serious writers

You must be new.

There is a difference between disillusioned and depressed.

>>9274661
This

I write much more when I'm happy.

Speaking from experience with university, where I had exceptional grades in a difficult major despite being depressed, I believe that depression helps as long as you channel it into whatever activity you are trying to improve. When that activity is the only thing that keeps your mind away from the fact that you kill yourself, you tend to pursue it with an autistic passion. I was studying math for 12 hours a day most days just to keep my mind off of everything else.

I think this is why a lot of past geniuses had mental health issues.

>>9274561
I can't write or do anything creative unless i'm expected to do other things.

Like, when I was in school I was constantly writing and drawing and stuff then I was on like a vacation for years doing nothing and went completely creatively bankrupt.

Then I got an important job and suddenly my mind goes into creative overdrive.

So i'd never be able to write full time with a job or something to balance me out mentally. I don't know why.

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>tfw to happy too write good

I'm depressed AND I'm totally uncreative, so in your face!

>>9275107
Fuck me this is me.

When I have free time, I hve no ideas. When Im at work or I'm procrastinating, I have so many ideas.

What the fuck is wrong with me

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>I feel like I'm too happy to be successful.

iktf op

>tfw satisfied with a mediocre life and have no incentive to change for the better

Eh I'm a happy normie and I write.

Different strokes and all that. Speaking for myself, I can't write when I'm depressed, meaning I basically am in a numb state. I may have some ideas I write down, a few fragments, but I don't care enough to try to do anything with them. I honestly am considering getting a prescription for some psych meds, because alcohol and waiting for a manic episode to motivate me to scribble down a half-assed story or an outline isn't working. Anyone have any experiences writing medicated vs. not?

>>9275488
I assume it's due to the fact that when you are doing something you don't want to be doing literally anything else seems better as long as you are the one who gets to choose.

it depends if you mean Facebook Depression ("i'm sad, they canceled my favorite cartoon show") or real depression (doesn't move, wash, feed self for a week).

part of writing is where you critically assess what you've just put down, and if you are Really depressed, your ability to assess your own work fails. everything looks like shit, even if it's good, and you can't produce anything at all.

>>9274561
You don't have to be anything to do anything.

>>9274561
so when you grow up being praised for a singular fixed trait say intelligence your sense of self become extremely volatile because you're in this position where you have to prove and reprove to yourself that you're worthy of the one thing you've been known for

you also grow up focusing solely on that one trait and letting other equally important traits fall to the wayside. like, y'know, being a likable person

that's why there are so many disgusting misanthropic nerds who wallow in their own sadness because they think it makes them 'deep' or 'intelligent' or 'interesting' because they've reduced themselves down to self-parody

they never grow as people. it's despicable.


anyways no op you're fine

>>9274561
Why do we have this thread every fucking day?

the confounder is that sad and angry people are more likely to come to 4chan than happy ones

>>9274561
why do you want to write?

>>9274561
not really although the greatest art tends to be drawn from a place of pain.

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>You guys are all serious writers

>>9274622

wow

I've been a lot happier for the last couple years, and I feel this so hard. I feel more stable, warmer, broader, but less unique and driven into myself.