When the Sun Stops Shining
by Diane Penna,
Staff Writer
Here at Writer’s Remember we aim to provide information that
inspires, uplifts, and encourages writers. There is no greater time
to receive assurance of ourselves, and our writing, than when we are
depressed, grieving, or otherwise hurting. With up to 70% of writers
suffering from depressive disorders, it is important to keep the
writing community aware of our propensity to pull into our shell,
and provide realistic advice on how to pull ourselves back out and
into our writing.
Writing this article happens to be timely for me. Over the last two
weeks, I have lost my two precious cats. As any pet owner knows,
animals are like babies. They love you unconditionally, provide
companionship, and are cute as buttons! When a writer’s day is
interspersed with time spent with those companions, it can get very
lonely indeed when they are gone. When grieving, such as I have
been, it is very tempting to just throw everything on the back
burner and remain curled up in your bed and under your sheets, with
the laptop collecting dust.
When you are down and in despair, there are a few things you can do
to keep your pen flowing and your words reverberating in the minds
of your readers.
Try a little perspective: My two cats are gone. However, I’m still
surrounded by a loving husband and our two kids. Neither of us
suffers from terminal illness, and we have a place to live and food
to eat. I have always subscribed to the belief that “things can
always be worse.” They really can! Remember that good always comes
out of bad, no matter how thick the fog is in front of you. The sun
will shine again.
Express your pain with your pen: Most brilliant writers I know write
from their heart. When we are feeling especially emotional,
vulnerable, or heartbroken, it is the perfect time to reach those
inner hopes and fears and express them in our work. Writers I’ve
talked to say they write better when they are a little depressed,
and while this isn’t a good excuse to avoid treatment for serious
mental disorders, it is an opportunity to take advantage of what
lies inside of us all.
Stay vulnerable: The fastest way to kill your creativity is to shut
your mind and heart down. When in physical or emotional pain, it is
easy to shut everything else out and climb inside our little shell,
sealing a wall of bricks behind us. However, what good does this do?
Just as you must open yourself up to pain when falling in love,
staying vulnerable will allow your creativity to flourish in the
ebbs and flows of emotion. It is on these waves of thought and
feeling that most of us have our greatest writing revelations, so
keep out of your shell and stay vulnerable!
Share and receive support: Most importantly, the easiest way to
remain committed to your writing when down is to tell others how
you’re feeling. Post it to your blog – I did. Are you suffering from
depression? Write an article about it for a local paper or magazine.
Not only will you receive support from readers and other writers,
but also you’ll feel better knowing that you are not alone in how
and what you feel. You’d be very surprised how many others relate to
the millions of different emotions we as humans can go through at
any given time.
Each of us deals with sadness in different ways, with some of us
burying it underneath our work or personal to-do lists. Often times
it will dissolve there, and other times it will later resurface to
be dealt with. If we continue with our writing projects, pushing
ourselves to produce material despite our feelings of inadequacy or
melancholy, we can remind our inner selves that we are more than
capable of excelling at our darkest times. Therefore, when the sun
shines again, we’ll have little excuse for not putting forth our
best effort, creating masterpieces of blank paper and digital files.
*************************
Diane Penna is a freelance writer and WAHM
(work-at-home-mom). With two children, ages 3 and 6, she
gets much of her inspiration from the day to day challenges
of taking care of a home, earning money, and raising kids.
She does all this while trying to maintain the identity of
first and foremost being a woman and a born-to-be writer.
Writing
self-help material that enlightens the life of women is
Diane's primary goal, while publishing a book filled with
encouragement is her dream. She is passionate about family
and parenting, life and living, and sees it as her destiny
to help others through the written word.
Visit Diane
at The Write Path
and Crazy
Mom's Journal.
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