Among the writers in the Iowa Workshop study, essentially all of them reported that they were unable to work creatively during periods of depression or mania.
Nancy C Andreason
There is a few things in the world that I actually know intimately, and it so happens that when it comes to this topic, I did not need to do research to know the answers. I already developed a strategy for it, and I call it the fairy method. This is because it almost feels like I am not the one doing the work, and I hired a fairy to come do all the work for me. But do not worry. Of course, I did the research anyway. This is my answer for writers though.
Planning at your most energetic, making an execution system, creating work times, and keeping physically active will help you remain productive even in your depressed states.
These are the best ways to increase your productivity, in my opinion. Especially considering the fact that studies show that these steps deal with the problem you face as a depressed writer.
“During depressive episodes their cognitive fluency and energy were decreased, and during manic periods they were too distractible and disorganized to work effectively.”
DR nancy C ANDREASON
Can Writing Affect Your Depression? Writers guide
Writing requires that you make abstract representations from reality, which can incite melancholy when seeing reality again.
When I was first struck by the blues, it was writing that helped me get better. However, it was not writing stories, but writing songs that was useful for me. I would later start writing books, which was also helpful in making me grow as a writer. But research does not seem to agree that writing helps decrease depression.
On her investigative paper, Depression and Creative Writing Students, Jen Webb was trying to investigate why her creative writing students seemed to be suffering from mental distress so often, versus other students. First of all, she learned that creative students do tend to have worse mental health. It was discovered by Psychiatrist kay Redfield that there was a relationship between affective disorders, and creativity. At some point, eight per cent of the writers suffered from some affective disorder, unlike the thirty per cent of the control group.
Anyway, what is of interest to us is that she hypothesizes that the reason for this has to do with writers needing to constantly be daydreaming. She quotes Romano Alberti, who said that “Painters become melancholics because, wishing to imitate, they must retain the phantasms fixed in the intellect, so that afterward they can express them in the way they first saw them when present…. They keep their minds so much abstracted and separated from nature that consequently melancholy derives from it.” (Alberti, cited in Agamben 25)
According to this article, some pharmaceutical intervention is necessary.. A psychiatrist to. “Overall, these results suggest that adequate and appropriate treatment is likely to be helpful for the majority of creative people.” I too advise you do that, to be frank. However, if you are cheap like me, and have no money, then there must be something else you can try. Something else that I did.
How can it be fixed according to me? For me, I merely started to change my physical environment. I took advantage of those times i felt positive, and tried to find a way to store, and unleash all that creative energy, even at my darkest pits. Really, the one thing that is guaranteed to work for us is creativity. If we bring our worlds alive, we breathe life into ourselves. At least that’s what did it for me.
How To Write When You Are Sad? For Writers
1. Writers Should Make Plans During Your Highs
The first step is to start making plans when you feel at your most energetic.
What I had noticed is that there were times in my life when I would be planning a story. The story would be exciting to me, and I found I could not wait to start writing. But for one reasons or another, I could not write at that moment. Maybe I was on the commute home from school, or I was already in bed. Then, when I finally get the opportunity to begin writing, I am not in the mood anymore.
I had to find a way to “store” my excitement, and my good energy. Planning was that way.
This technique helps for even morbid circumstances, like the blues. When you are at your most energetic, do not just use those days to write books. Instead, make a number of outlines for future projects you have in mind. Try to make them as detailed as possible. Be like the ant who stores food for the winter, because trust me. Winter is coming.
(Yes. Yes I did give my self a high five for that one.)
2. Writers Should Create Systems
The second step is to start making systems to execute your plans.
This time, I was inspired by machines and Atomic Habits. Basically, it does not matter if your have an extremely detailed plan if you have no intention of actually executing the said plan. So how can you make sure that you manage to execute the plan?
Create systematic steps for you to take when executing the plan.
Foe me, a system is something that has an input, a process, and an output. Like some sort of shredder machine. There is the paper as input. Then the process when you place the papers into the shredder, and it is shredder. The output is no more proof of humiliating begging text messages. The same 4 steps follow in your system.
Your input is the outline that you have made. Your process should be the step by step process you take when writing. For me, I hate seeing an empty page. So I go online and search for words that I could possibly use (words that describe the setting, set the tone, or were used in the time period). I write these words down. Then, go above this paragraph of words, and I pre-draft. This means I write the setting of the scene, the characters in the scene, their intentions, what is standing in their way, and how the character will change to overcome it.
Then there is the 3rd step, which is pressing the start button on the machine. This is done when I sit down on my writing space, and when I think of what the first line will be. I will write it over at least 5 times before I find one I like, and suddenly the machine will activate. Before I know it, i will be looking at the 4th step. A complete output. 1 complete chapter.
Further pre-writing examples can be seen in this Brandon Sanderson video.
3. Writers Should Embed Times
The third step is to start setting apart the times that you will have to execute your work.
Unfortunately, these 2 steps are not enough. Now you have your stored excitement, and you have your system of working/writing. It is all rather pointless to have a plan, execution steps, and yet you do not actually make time to actually execute these things. So what would it take for a writer to succeed?
It takes on a special case when you consider someone feeling blue.
When I was blue, I always felt lost. Especially when it came to time. I would feel like it was 05 in the morning, only to learn it was 07. Sometimes even the date seemed completely of. I’d be shocked to learn a month had passed, and I was just in bed the whole time. Then that would make me feel even more blue because I felt worthless for all the time I’d wasted. However, there is a way of pushing back this specific feeling of “lostness”.
So, you should choose a time when you know that no family member, friend, or other responsibility, such as work or school, is not going to disturb you. For me, this is from 05 to 07 in the morning, and then later at around 05-08 in the afternoon. Then, you should embed your execution steps into these times. Take it a step further, and set an alarm that will tell you 30 minutes earlier that the time is drawing near. You can go sit down and do the pre-drafting, and when the time arrives, you can start writing.
Now, you will fail.
Many a day, you will not make it early, and you will arrive at the time you set on the dot (this is literally me). Or you will arrive late, and even worse, you will just sit there and do nothing. Sometimes, I do not even make it. I oversleep. I have failed many times at this, but you know what?
Ever since I was 19, I have not felt lost.
I’ve felt blue sure, but I never felt complete confused, and lost. Even though i am not doing it at that moment, I know what I should be doing. As a result, I know exactly what I am doing with my life. I may not like it, but I at least know what sort of damage I am doing to myself. This knowledge will alleviate your blues.
Still though, do your work on time, m’kay?
4. Writers Could Stay In Motion
The fourth step is that you need to make sure that you keep your body moving physically.
The way you use your body affects, and shifts your mental state. Many studies have been done on this. If you sit in an awkward position, with your shoulders and arms closing your chest, you wills tart to feel awkward, and insecure. If you sit in a comfortable position, then you will start to feel confident.
Suppose then winter has arrived. Unlike in the previous 3 steps, now you are in the depths of the blue phase. How then can writers do something? If you did the first 3, you will have a plan, a system of execution, and a time to execute it. Now you just need to make yourself feel like doing. The trick is to remain physical active. Soon enough your body itself will follow.
When I am blue, I only sleep in bed. Trust me, I can do that for a long time. So, what I do is, I pack up my bed. I fold the blanket, and pillows, then stash them. Then, I push up the mattress to stand up right. I do the same with the frame. I place the frame on the opposite side of the room, and the mattress on the other side, and the blankets and pillows equally far away. The process takes no more than 3 minutes, leaving me with no place to sleep. This means I have no choice but to stand for most of the day. Or if I sit, I have to sit on the table, where my work is in front of me. Then what can writers do?
You can do something similar.
Look at what you do when you are feeling blue, which keeps you immobile. Then, remove it. Make it harder to use. Then, you will find that you end up using your body when you do not feel like it. The results of this are amazing.
5. Writers Should Lower The Bar
The fifth step will be to try and be realistic with your goals.
The main goal of working when you are blue is not productivity…
It is not to try and churn out massive loads of work, and get stuff done. The main point, and goal of working while you are blue, is to make yourself feel better. It is to get yourself moving.
Do you understand what that means?
It means that when you work on a day you are blue, that is a victory. When you write a single page on a day you are blue, you are a legend. I promise you that if you manage to do this long enough, something amazing will happen. When I first started writing, and feeling blue, I would go for months without writing, just feeling blue. These days, I go just 2 weeks at most, then I am back to writing. I suspect that in the future, it will be less time.
My blue times are getting smaller, and smaller, while my productive times are getting bigger, and bigger. And isn’t that something she would absolutely adore?… wait, wha-
Try to diminish the weight of the task that you have to do. There are 2 ways to do this. First, you could decrease the word count. You could say you will write 500 words or maybe even a 100. This was advice I saw somewhere, but it did not work for me. I had no patient to count. So i preferred pages. Everyday, I write a page. I failed spectacularly at that, but hey, at least the heart was there. Then there is the second way.
This is the way that has been working best for me. I decrease the quality of the work. The goal is to write and finish a chapter, and ignore terrible dialogue, unclear setting descriptions, and weird sentences. I got this idea from Joe Abercrombie. He calls it “vomiting” on the page. And I just love that. So now, all I ever do is vomit on the page until I am satisfied.
6. Writers Could Layer The Steps
The sixth step is to start layering the work that you have to create so that you reach your goals quicker.
… but a lil’ bit of productivity don’t hurt nobody, eh?
It is enough for a great many writers to be working in their blue states. They will feel amazing, and their blues will loosen somewhat. Yet, there comes the hedonic treadmill to slap you in the face. You could find that your work no longer satisfies you as it once did, and you want to graduate from that level. Your blues aren’t strangling you, but you still want to get progress done with your book. Maybe for a due date or something. It’s easy for writers to fix that.
You could just layer your progress.
Look at your outline, and what you have to do to finish the work. Look at how much time you have to finish the work. Then, you can just start layering the outline on top of the time and dates you have set apart. Say your outline has about 10 chapters, and you write on 09-`12, which is enough for you to finish a vomit chapter. Then, you can approximate how many days it will take for you to finish the task.
Then, you can just up the load.
If you want to finish before that date, then you will give yourself more work, and you will see that you get so much of your work done. it is honestly awesome.
7. They Should Give In To The Age
The seventh step is to make use of your blue state.
When I was blue, I mostly just wanted to sleep in my bed. It was during this time that I started reading so many books, and watching many movies. This was honestly the best thing that ever happened to me. I learned so much in that short period than I had in my whole life. This can help other writers too.
So for you too this might work.
As a writer, you write what you read. Use your blue period to start reading as many books as you can. Or watching as many books as you can. One of the unfortunate consequences of packing up your bed is that your body starts associating the bed as a sleep section. I can no longer lay in bed, and read. I always fall asleep. I’m just warning you because that may be your destiny too. So, you could do your reading and watching of movies from your couch.
Make sure that you do not have anything to do at that time so you can be productive. Additionally, make sure that the reading is as productive as it can be. meaning, look at the genre of the book you want to read, and read books of that genre. Read writing styles of the prose you want to write. And read character similar to the ones you want to write.
Do this, and you
8. They Should Consume A Diet
The ninth step is to make sure that you consume things that motivate you and make you feel like working hard.
There are three things that motivate us. A desire to gain something, a fear of losing something, and finally, curiosity/ desire to test ourselves.
So the gain can be something emotional, such as people seeing you in a respectful, and admiring light. Or something physical, such as money, financial freedom, and the likes. When you are consuming books, and watching movies/ YouTube videos, consume more productive things. Watch videos of top 10 greatest authors, and picture yourself being spoken of in that manner. Watch the most successful authors and how they spend their money.
For the fear part, what frightens us is also emotional and physical. We do not want to be a failure to our family. For me, that would be my parents. They gave so much for me, it would suck to fail them. Then, for others it cold be peers. Imagine your friends making it and getting families, and homes, while you are the failed writer still living your parents. Is that the life you want to live? Physical fears could be just not making it, and ending up having to be a hobbo or something. That would be sad honestly. So consume content of such situations, and then, hope the fear of ending up like that drives you to work harder.
Finally, there is the best in my of all these. Curiosity, and the desire to test yourself. Have you ever seen those short memes that make you do something, then laugh at you for doing it? That’s because we humans are curios about our abilities. We will try whatever we see. You should use this for your advantage. Watch tutorials on writing characters, or chapters, or scenes. Then, you will be curios to see if you could execute it like that. Next thing you know, you really want to start writing.
9. They Should Reward Themselves
Finally, reward yourself.
I hope this does not need explanation. Reward yourself after a writing session, reward yourself after a week where you have not felt lost because you’d planned it all through. Finally, reward yourself after you make it past winter and into summer again.
Obviously, reward yourself when you finish writing your book.
I’m not going to lie this left me in a great mood to write. It’s 06:49 right now, and I believe I have about 10 minutes to start writing. After finishing these article of course.
Join me sometime, and write with me. By the way, if you have any other idea on how to do it, let me know, so that I can also learn how to be mastering mastery.