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Losing your "oomph" (discussion about creativity, and when it goes away)

*SWeeT-e*

Bluelighter
Joined
Dec 19, 1999
Messages
1,791
Location
Canada
This is not a poem, I just wanted some feedback from all the writers in here.

A couple of years ago I used to write constantly, it was my release, my way of processing everything that happened in my life. It was a very manic-depressive stage of my life- the up-and-down rollercoaster that was the course of my drug addiction(s). It was a very fucked-up period for me, often being in the depths of depression and sometimes suicidal....but DAMN could I write! My words had what I refer to as "oomph". You know, that feeling where your hand can't keep up with the thoughts pouring from your brain, the rhymes, images, metaphors come exploding from your pen without any effort at all. That rush of creativity circulating constantly in your veins like a drug.

Then somewhere along the way....it just stopped. When I was recovering from my addiction, I stopped coming to BL for a long time, and my pen dried up as well. Almost as if I was trading in creativity for normality, writing for my sanity. I worked so hard to have a normal, stable life again, and it sapped all the creativity out of my veins. I essentially stopped writing, and when I did write, it was almost as if I was forcing myself to, but it lacked that "oomph", that feeling, that extra something that it used to have. Maybe it was all the drama in my life that no longer existed, the self-destructive path I was hell-bent on, that had fueled my creativity, and in giving that up, I gave up my source of inspiration. But you shouldn't have to be wildly unstable and self-destructive in order to be a good writer, should you?

I'm trying to write again but the words don't flow like they used to, I *hate* that and I'm trying to get it back, but my "oomph" is gone. It's like a case of writer's block that has continued for about 2 years. My question is, has anyone out there experienced something similiar? Have you lost your creativity for a period of time and if you got it back, how did you do so? What do you think your creativity comes from/is fueled by to begin with? And do I have to be manic-depressive again in order to fulfill my dream of becoming a writer? Your thoughts on this are much appreciated!:)

~*~kimmy~*~
 
I know exactly how you feel. I've lost my writing spark. I haven't written a fantasy in ever so long and my two latest attempts at poetry (posted under a different user name here and here) really fall flat against what I expect of myself. The only writing I tend to do nowdays is in my Journal and even then only sporadically.

I'm not sure what is wrong, I have a million verses and ideas for poetry and fantasies and many in the works... but I've lost my flow. I've lost that special spark and desire.

I can't offer suggestions for getting that spark back, I'm not even close to there myself but I do sympathise and I'm really very interested in the responses.

[edit] - fixed links :)
 
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my view on things. art, in it's many forms, and i view writing as one of those forms, is begotten of passion. that depth of feeling within us, that passion that drives us, seeks expression, and sometimes it does so in writing.

i was/am the same. when i was drug-fucked, i would churn stuff out a mile a minute. when i'm clean and clear, i dry up. what i've found though, now when i'm sober, some of my best writing is in response to others. whether it be a counter-argument, or a series of quick fire questions trying to assess a person's state of being, or sharing a personal experience or point of view, i look at that writing with immense satisfaction, because ultimately it is an exposition of me, and where i was intellectually at that point in time.

writing comes in many forms, and is begotten for many differing reasons. don't get stuck into what you used to be, and what you used to do. that person doesn't exist anymore. the person you are today should still hold on to writing as a passion, but find other ways and styles of releasing that latent talent.

good fortune.
 
I think ur writing comes from the emotions that u hold inside. All the things that u love, hate and yes drugs do intensive ur writing ability, but its all in what u feel...at least it is for me.

About a year ago i took a writing class in college and i hated it. I can not write about a topic that doesn't relate to me at all...who really can?

I have a safety deposit box that holds bout 12 notebooks of my writing-starting from the age of 10. I am now 25 and every once in a while i find myself goin to that box and just reading for hours....oh how I laugh at what I used to write and I will have to say there are a lot of tears also. But no matter it all comes from the heart at that time in ur life....and i think having a good relationship with ur heart and ur emotions is the key to an amazing notebook (worth reading over and over)
There were times in my notebooks where i didn't write for months...but when i needed it, it was there....

don't try-just let it all come to u...ur words will flow again...

B
 
I don't know if this helps, but I can tell you what I've discovered in my situation in the hope that it'll be of some assistance.

At some point recently I went through the same thing...I realised that I could only really write well when I was going through some massive emotional or mental upheaval. That I could be sane and healthy, but the price seemed to be giving up my ability to write.

Writing is borne of passion, and I think it's easy to fall into the trap of using writing to express our darkness and nothing else. That's what I found of myself...that everything I wrote was a cathartic release, or something to shock, or a cry for help, but it was all about the negative.

I had come to use writing as therapy, and wasn't really working on the actual skill of putting across ideas in words. So the way I've been dealing with this is by giving myself little projects...writing in a style that I don't usually do, or taking on an unusual point of view, or discussing a weird topic. Then from here I've been working to try and verbalise my positive emotional state as well as the negative...

...it's not always easy, but the last lot of stuff that I've posted here is coming from that process, and I've had good feedback with it. I think sometimes if you focus on something unusual for yourself, it teaches your mind to think creatively again, rather than just spewing out the depths of your emotion.

(I hope all that made sense, I'm a bit scrambled at the moment). ;)

--Raz--
 
Well I've written twice this week... Unspoken and Dead Eyes I think both lack my usual "oomph" but they're getting there.

I honestly think my trigger to begin writing again was a phone call from a friend and if you'd like to know more about it PM or email me, I'm not willing to post what exactly it was that managed to kick in the "feelings" again.

The phone call turned my pretend apathy (I say pretend because it was more that I suppressed all feelings on it than had no strong feelings) about a situation back into raw feelings and now I finally have the desire to form poetry or prose and get my feelings on paper. I'm no longer merely existing; I'm hurting, hoping, loving, hating and all of those passions have kicked back in the desire to write.

Kitty
 
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