Fighting Depression

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As a writer, no doubt, you've experienced the ups and downs that come with the craft.  The elation when you receive praise for a work, the deflation when you receive a rejection.  But it doesn't even necessarily have to be a rejection to get you blue.  Sometimes, you might just find yourself melancholy over a work in progress, or maybe it's when you're wading your way through edits.

You tell yourself you're not good enough to make it, to ever get paid for your work.  And when you look to the world for that pat on the back, well, it's not always there.  People have their own lives, their own going ons, and we can't always expect someone to lift us up.  In fact, sometimes, I don't think it would matter if we had a team coaching us, there's still times the negative emotions feel suffocating.  But in my opinion, having these lows is part of being a writer.  If you only saw yourself as a genius with no flaws then you would only be deceiving yourself.  There are areas all of us can improve in our craft whether it be in minor areas or major ones.

So, how do you get yourself through the low moments when your self-esteem is low?
- Stop feeling sorry for yourself.  In a day or two, the blues will likely pass and you'll be on a high again.
- Encourage and build up your fellow writers.  Possibly beta for someone.
- Keep on writing, and work through it

These are just a few steps I can think of to get back to feeling great again as they've worked for me.  Most importantly, don't give up on writing!

Comments

  1. Scott ChaseFebruary 26, 2011 at 10:30 PM

    Writers write. Do we need time away? Absolutely. But we still think about writing all the time. The wife always asks me "where are you? you're zoning." I just make the "tapping on the keyboard" motion with my hands and that ends the discussion. She knows where my mind always is. But that doesn't mean I don't get depressed. Far from it.

    Depression is, as Carolyn says, a part of writing. Fighting the almost-constant state of "you can't do this, you suck, you're awful, you'll never make it" thoughts is part of what we do. We are born masochists who almost thrive in those conditions, but always dreamers who see the light at the end of the tunnel, even if it seems the star has burned out long ago.

    It's what makes us write. And writers.

    ReplyDelete

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