The blues come. The blues go but how do you escape them when you experience these downturns?
This is the time you push your chair to your desk and concentrate on your writing. Why? Because in this way, your mind focuses on your work and bypasses the dark days.
Of course, if it is the death of a loved one or a terrible family crisis this would not work. However, if it is an incident, an argument or something along this line, getting your creative juices going provides better mental healing than any pill could achieve and without the side effects.
Forming that witty character who you love lightens your mood. There is a character in my Work in Progress, Cameos and Carriages, I just adore. Perhaps it is because she is bubbly, naive and says what she feels without hesitation. Here is an excerpt:
... Looking to his right then to his left, he took a step forward bumping into Annie Lee.
She giggled. “You hiding, Johnnie boy? I thought you got over your schoolyard pranks.”
Reshuffling the camera to get a better handle on it, John took a step backwards to eye the redheaded beauty. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t see you. I-I ...”
“Not paying attention isn’t going to snag a headline,” her long hair bobbing.
Annie Lee puts me in a better mood. But it does not need to be a character, setting the scene also gives you inward peace. When I wrote an intimate scene by a fountain, I needed to go to the Internet and find a picture of the kind of fountain I had in mind. This was not easy since it was one I had seen in an old motion picture. Thus I searched several Web sites before I came to the three-tiered design I desired. Another excerpt:
She turned her head from him and fixated on the fountain. The water gushed from the top tier to the second before flowing to the bottom tier’s large rock base. She swept her hand over the bubbling liquid.
He reached for her arm and clasped his fingers around hers. Laughing, he brushed his lips against her hair. “Your hair smells nice but you didn’t answer my question.”
Giggling, she stirred her index finger in the cool water and faced him. “Did you say something?”
In addition, do not forget the importance, if you are a believer, in the power of faith and how this intertwines in your work.
Christ is my center but in no way am I saying I am perfect or I never experienced depression. With two different autistic sons and other problems, I have had my share. But then again, writing and faith helps placate the bad times. My recently released inspiring-historical romance, Lockets and Lanterns, includes biblical quotes which ease characters’ pains just as they do mine. For example, the novel includes this passage: “I laid me down and slept; I awakened; for the Lord sustained me.”
So restore your soul by writing even when you got the blues and as always God bless.
