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/lit/ - Literature

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23330750 No.23330750 [Reply] [Original]

I'm interested in the psychology that drives those of us who write. Most writers I meet don't even "like" writing, it's a compulsive need. Where as others might be gluttons, or enjoy some sport or hobby, writers seem to write because it's innate to them and they have to do it.
They almost always, without fail, seem miserable on top of this. It's true of your average no name writer, and all the greats; the most treasured writers seem to increase in quality in direct proportion to their misery or bleakness. Dostoevsky was better than Tolstoy, and it's because he was "le sad."
What makes us like this? Why does this strange mix of self awareness and melancholy, even patheticness, seem to produce such generative, beautiful lines of work coming out of a person?
Maybe you don't agree, I'd like to hear that too. What is behind the psychology of the "writer?"

>> No.23330773

>>23330750
I wonder if guilt drives the mind of the writer. Sometimes I feel like it does. For past events out of their control, or things they did in general.

>> No.23330780

It's not complicated, there's a story that I want to tell and no one else but me is going to make it happen.

>> No.23330781

>>23330773
Could be. But everyone has guilt, baggage and mistakes; so why doesn't everyone write?

>> No.23330788

>>23330773
Also, is this true, or do you feel guilty?

>> No.23330827

>>23330780
That's fair; but why?
Everyone has a story to tell. But only a few of us "must" tell it.

>> No.23330831

>>23330781
>>23330788
I mean just look at the lives of some of the most famous writers and the shit they did on their spare time. Some definitely felt some sort of guilt much greater then average, which probably fueled their work. Of course not every writer is like this, but the most miserable writers definitely suffered from it.

>> No.23330847

I'm not a writer but I wrote a children's book as a school project once and it was entertaining as fuck. My teacher (she was from Ireland) thought it was great. It had a tapir in it.

>> No.23330848

>>23330831
I guess, but some of that guilt seems out of proportion. Some of the more bleak ones, they did things that were bad, but not extraordinarily bad or much different from your average person. Most of them aren't murderers or something. They just mistreated someone in the past, or wasted their own time, etc. These are very common problems, it's their reaction to their problems that's uncommon.
Your average guy in the 20th century who beat his wife and kids because he didn't like how life panned out, didn't respond by writing great novels. They just went drinking.

>> No.23331261

>>23330848
Remember anon, not everyone processes guilt the same. Some drink, some draw, some write, and some just literally kill themselves. Guilt is a very complex emotion, it's not as simple as you like to perceive it.