New York City Writers Forum How do you use your emotional ..

As per a recent blog post I did on here, I find that some of my best work comes out when I'm either very sad or absolutely f*****g furious.

I was wondering what it was like for others? I currently think it sucks that I have trouble being happy and being able to write good fiction....lol

that is what poetry is about. it is a pretty purge. sometimes a t**d in a tiffany's box. I learned early on that if I wanted to piss and moan and have people listen, I'd better give it out in a way that will entertain and amuse.

but I want to write about delight and tell my bigdealstory and be done with lovesick. sometimes it all makes me wanna s**t........

LOL
I love the way you put it.
Yeah, seriously, I'd like to be able to entertain and tell a good story without having to be in the mindframe to stick my head in a f*****g oven...

I find that I get more writing done when I am feeling not so good. I don't know why that is exactly but when I am feeling good, happy....I tend not to be able to get it down as much. Very strange thing, actually. Maybe that's why a lot of my poems tend to lean towards a cynical side... I wonder why this is?

When I commenced work on Adria - the current Dalmatian cookbook project - I wanted to somehow incorporate the story of my travels and emotions in Dalmacija into the outline. Far out concept, huh?

Once I got there and started travelling, the horror stories began accumulating right next to my experience of the food and emotional overwhelmitude. I don't want to present Dalmatian food as a overwhelmingly wacky emotional misadventure I had, so I'm keeping my travel experience out of the picture. Rather, I now intend to passionately convey the cuisine through photos and text through a lens of culinary technique, history, culture, topography, architecture, agriculture, viticulture. I may even do some text on Dalmatian music for ambience.

The wacky misadventures and associated emotional states are now slated to end up as fiction or non-fiction. The locations and music are ripe for a screenplay, so I'll probably detach emotionally by going for strong, dynamic fiction.

So back to the question: How do you use your emotional state in your work?

Overall, I not too interested in asking readers to share the burden of my actual emotions as I feel them. I want readers to have emotional experiences, but I don't currently want them to know that I have them as well.

John J. Goddard
Third Person

That's an interesting - and very valid - way to look at it, John. I suppose it really depends on what one is writing and who the audience is.

Having worked in the bookstore and seen how B&N runs things, and having read/shelved/added data info for titles in both Travel Essay and Cooking Essay, you could do a separate book for both about the same trip...several of the travel essay books do get emotional and/or deep about the enlightenment received during their journeys.