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Writers tend to be a depressive bunch. Given we're constantly being rejected and searching for ways to gain validation and publications and (one day) a sale, it's not really a huge surprise. Various people have ideas and ways to stave off the downward slope, and it's an important thing to examine.
Elizabeth Gilbert talks about it in her TedTALK about creativity and inspiration. I rather like her suggestion that inspiration and creativity should be considered partially external, to share the burden, so to speak, of the success or failure of a creative endeavour.
I was wondering what other people do to handle the constant stresses of writing. Do you believe in your Muse? Do you somehow separate your work from yourself, and do so successfully? What ways do you avoid getting depressed from being a writer?
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I don't think people are depressed because they are writers: rather, they are writers (0r some other kind of creative artists) because they are depressed.
ReplyDeleteOTOH, are we so very abnormal? I saw on TV recently that one in five Aussies will suffer from depression at some stage, and while writers do seem have a lot of depressives in their ranks, I wonder how much higher the proportion is among creatives?