The Right Mood for Writing by Kathryn Scherer
Do you find it easier to write something that matches the mood you’re in, or something that contrasts with it? Imagine you come home from an emotional hospital visit, full of sadness and pain. And you sit down to work on a story which focusses on joy. Does it give you a break from your own strong emotions? Or do you just give up, unable to get into the right headspace. Last week I was struggling to write the next chapter in my current work-in-progress. The main character is angry with events and feeling isolated. She needs to express her frustration to God. And I felt a real resistance to even attempting to write the chapter. I’m familiar with procrastination, with the reluctance to get down to work. This resistance was stronger than that. I wondered if I had misjudged how the character was feeling. Sometimes the aversion to writing a particular scene is because the story has taken a wrong turn. Or I’m trying to force a character to go where they don’t want to g...