Writing and Moods

About a week ago I was supposed to sit down and do a piece of writing. By lunch time I had an impeccably tidy desk - all the dirty glasses were dropped off in the kitchen sink, the pens all stood to attention in the pen pot rather than rolling around underneath my paper, ink-staining my forearms where I have neglected to replace the caps. Had I done any writing? No, I had not – not a jot. No matter. I had the whole afternoon stretching out in front of me with nary a paperclip out of place to distract me from the task at hand – until I had a disagreement with a friend.

I won’t go into detail because as is often the case, the details are not worth mentioning, and I fail to recall exactly what they were anyway. What is important is that it upset me so much that I couldn’t write. I had wasted the whole morning and then when I finally came to sit down and write, I couldn’t give it the attention it deserved. I promise this was not just another avoidance tactic, believe me, I’m the first to admit my tendency to procrastinate. I actually sat down to write and realized that what I produced would be angry, because I was angry. If it had been a bit of personal writing, it might not have mattered. Dark moods have their place. But this was professional, business writing that called for a clear head, not excessive banging of the keyboard.

I ended up waiting a day and completing the piece to my satisfaction, but the incident reminded me of how difficult it is to be a professional writer, or any other kind of artist for that matter. I personally find it very difficult to turn off my emotions and write feelings that aren’t true. Just like I would find it difficult to paint a field of sunflowers if I’d just stubbed my toe. That I’m a terrible painter is by the by. The reason this doesn’t work for business writing is obvious. I’m not representing myself in that instance, I’m representing the client, and I’m pretty sure that the newly-opened, fluffy bunny shop from around the corner doesn’t want Miserable Maud writing their copy.

Even in personal writing emotions can cause difficulties. I remember a creative writing teacher saying that the environment in which you write has to stay consistent throughout the piece. If you started writing as dawn broke listening to Mozart’s Andante, then you should do that every time you sat down to work on that piece. I find this to be a little extreme. What if you were writing something really long? You couldn’t possible listen to Mozart’s Andante every single day for a year. Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth is 976 pages and spans a century if not more – heaven knows for how many years he would have had to recreate his environment. Presumably the same thing applies to emotions. It’s not helpful to your piece if you feel angry or sad because it’s almost impossible to not let that feed into your writing somehow and affect the consistency of your voice.

If you want to give your writing the attention and the respect it deserves, which should always be the case, take a break and revisit it at a later time. In the long run it will serve you much better. And whatever you do, definitely don’t start a piece of writing when you’re angry, otherwise you’ll have to spend the rest of the year poking yourself in the eye in an effort to keep the tone the same, and no piece of writing is worth that.