People think they select what they're going to read based on their mood. "I'm in the mood for a mystery," they say, or "I feel like a good historical thriller." I'm not sure how many people actually stop to ask themselves why they're in the mood for this or that. Of course, with my psychology background, I'm nearly always curious why people think or feel the way they do, and usually that includes myself.
"I feel like reading a non-fiction political exposé," I might say. Then I would follow up with, "Why in the heck do I feel like reading that, instead of checking out that supernatural thriller novel that's been recommended to me by fifteen people that I trust?"
The answer, I find, usually lies in what's going on in my life at the moment. If circumstances are limiting my time with my spouse, I lean towards tales with romantic suspense. If I'm dealing with life problems out of my control, I want an adventure where heroes face and conquer horrible odds. When I feel stifled by people forcing their stupidity on me, I want characters full of wry wit and artful schemes. You get the idea.
I figured this out about myself pretty young. The interesting thing is that sometimes I'm not 100% in touch with my feelings. But I'm nearly always 100% in touch with what I want to read. Then I can ask myself, "Why am I feeling this intense drive to re-read Harry Potter V again? Oh yeah...because I'm feeling appalling frustrated waiting for things to happen, and the only person who could understand how I feel is lying behind a dehydrated hydrangea bush, trying to listen to the bloody Muggle news!!!"**
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| Now that's frustration. |
I've heard some writer's say they're more productive when they're happy, and I've heard others say that they're more productive when they're experiencing some kind of distress. The idea of the "tortured artist" is obviously very popular, but I think that's only because happy artists are less interesting to learn about (for example, most people know that Jane Austen died young and single--but you don't hear much about her relatively comfortable and happy family life up to that point). But I've come to the conclusion that I can be productive no matter how I'm feeling, as long as I'm willing to work on the story or scene that best matches my mood. If I can figure that out, the ideas will come, and the words will follow. Unfortunately, this doesn't work so well when applying the discipline to complete a single work...but ah, well...such is the burden of a tortured artist such as myself!
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| Do NOT use these in lieu of adjectives in your novels. |
*Yes, I am fully aware that the title of this post is grammatically incorrect.
**Ok, that's an exaggeration. But only a mild one.