First, an announcement: It’s Memoir May here at Writerland! What does that mean? It means that I’ll be editing memoirs this month for 30% off my regular rate. Why this super-amazing spring discount? Because while my own memoir is being marked up with red ink by my editor in New York, I have more time to mark up other people’s memoirs with red ink. So if you or someone you know has been putting off writing, editing, or revising a memoir, now is the time to stop procrastinating and DO IT! For more information about me and my editing services, visit my website. I had it redesigned a couple of months ago but haven’t officially announced it since there are still some tweaks I need to make. But check it out and e-mail me if you have any questions about my editing services.
And now, back to our regularly scheduled post. I was doing some research a few weeks ago and stumbled across this post on Joe Konrath’s blog. It’s a very touching and very sad post, and you should read it. But the title, “Depression and Writers,” is what really struck a chord with me. I have suffered from depression and know many other writers who have as well, which got me to thinking, which came first, the writing or the depression? Do writers get depressed because they are writers, or do people with depression tend to flock toward writing, painting, and music as a means to express their suffering? I think both. I think people who suffer from depression benefit from expressing themselves creatively (I know that when I was modeling in Paris and depressed more often than not, I wrote furiously in my journals nearly every day, and that constant practice led me to want to take my writing to the next level.) I also think, like in the case of Kiana Davenport (whose collection of short stories I bought but have not yet read), depression may be exacerbated by the ups and downs (mostly downs these days) of the writing life.
Let me say right now—whether you are published or not—if you are relying on external validation from the public and the publishing industry to ward off your depression, get thee to a shrink stat. Because there is NO guarantee that your unpublished book will get published. There is NO guarantee that your published book will get good reviews. There is NO guarantee that your published book with great reviews will sell enough to pay your mortgage. SO PLEASE do not let the craziness that is going on in the publishing industry today determine how you feel about yourself, your writing, or your life. I know it’s hard. We (as writers) are smart, creative, motivated people who could have gone to law school or earned an MBA. We could be making a lot of money! Instead, we chose to follow our hearts because we love literature and we love words, and we wanted to give back to others some of the joy, fulfillment, and knowledge we have reaped from the many books we have read throughout our lifetimes. That and because we love to write. (If you are one of those overachievers who is making a ton of money as a doctor or a lawyer AND writing books on the side, you’re probably too busy and overwhelmed to know if you’re depressed or not!)
So yes, writing is hard. And it can exacerbate depression. It’s hard when you’ve taken writing classes, you’ve earned your MFA (or, rather, spent all your earnings on your MFA), written your novel, revised your novel until you have carpal tunnel and are nearly blind, hired a freelance editor to edit your book, revised again, queried agents, been rejected by agents, queried more agents, gotten some bites but no offer, revised some more, queried more agents, been offered representation by an agent, then sat around for a year while your agent couldn’t sell your manuscript, considered self-publishing, considered changing agents, considered re-revising … and on and on. It’s hard.
But there are a few things writers can do to help/prevent/alleviate depression:
1. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Have other interests and other sources of income besides writing. Also have more than one project you’re working on at once. Don’t bank everything on one manuscript. It may be your second or third or fourth that sells. Remember ex-literary agent and published author Nathan Bransford said he wrote a book in his 20s ” that didn’t work out.” I can promise you he’s not the only one.
2. Exercise! This is my secret sauce. When I get down, I go running, or swimming, or even just for a walk outside, and it makes me feel so much better. Yes, there are those days when I feel too crappy to go running. That’s when I …
3. Call a friend. Sometimes it helps just to talk about things. Feeling you’re not alone with your feelings, or your problems, that someone else is shouldering the burden with you, can offer tremendous relief.
4. Write. Writing isn’t always the answer. Sometimes we need to take a break from writing. But if you haven’t been writing for a while, scribble in a journal for a few pages, or start a new short story. You could get crazy and WRITE A POEM.
5. Get some fresh air. Have you been spending all your time in front of a computer? Have you been writing and blogging and Tweeting and Facebooking? Maybe it’s time for you to take a hike. I did this yesterday, and I felt strong and happy and invigorated. It’s so important to get away from the electronics and the lights and the traffic and the roads now and then. Take a walk in the woods. Or have a picnic on the beach. Or go jump in a lake. A little oxygen and some negative ions may change your outlook on life.
6. Read. When I was living alone in Paris in the late 80s/early 90s, I would head to the English bookstore (W.H. Smith) whenever I felt down. Sometimes I bought self-help books (Louisa L. Hay’s You Can Heal Your Life) and sometimes I bought novels, but curling up in bed with a good book always made me feel less alone.
7. Take care of yourself. Get enough sleep, and eat healthy food. If you’re like me, you get depressed when you’re sleep deprived for too long, or if you eat crappy food too many days in a row. It’s important to exercise, but it’s also important to get enough rest. Lie in bed and read a book, take a hot bath, or get a massage.
8. Get help. If all else fails, don’t hesitate to call a therapist and set up an appointment. I’ve been to five in my lifetime, and most of my friends have been to them, too. They’re awesome, and if they weren’t so expensive, I’d probably still go because I love having someone sit there and listen to me blab for an hour.
What about you? Do you occasionally (or frequently) suffer from depression? How do you deal with it? Do you think writers tend to get depressed more often than non-writers? Why?
I can certainly understand wannabe writers getting depressed by constant rejection. We've all been there. It's an occupational hazard.
But your advice applies equally whether you're depressed or not.
Fresh air, exercise, good food and broad reading are essential ingredients to keep the mind active.
Look at them as fuel for your writing.
Fresh air and exercise gives you time to reflect on your work and be inspired by what you see around you.
Good food is not just about keeping the tastebuds happy. It will help your body fight ailments that might stop you writing later, and good writing anyway invariably needs all five senses.
A scene where the MC actually takes time out to eat might be just the opportunity your reader needs to slow down and reflect, and the choice of food might show a new side to the MC's character. Would Silence Of The Lambs be anywhere near as good if we didn't know what was on the menu?
As for reading…
Hard to imagine any writer does not read every second they are not glued to their keyboad, but variety is the key.
If you're worried about being your WIP being unduly influenced, which is a legitimate concern, then try a whole new genre. Something you normally would never touch with a barge-pole. You night just be pleasantly surprised.
Ditto what Mark said.
I can't say as I've truly suffered from depression (there may have been a short stint in college, but it was boy-related, not writing-related) but all of your advice is important for ANY writer. And really anyone, period. So many people are caught up in the hustle and bustle of career advancement, on external validation, and none of those things are what life is about. Our bodies (and our spirits, imo) need something much more important, and much more basic: nurturing.
Thanks for the tips, and thanks for the link to that post. It was a very interesting read.
Oh, you're lucky, Kristan, if you never get depressed! I don't get depressed nearly as often as I did in my 20s, but it does happen now and then, and it's no fun. I received Oryx and Crake, btw. Thank you! I'm looking forward to reading it.
I found this wonderful post through Mark. I'm a bipolar writer and I've spoken at conferences on mental health and culture. Every vperson who talks about the issue makes a difference for the better.
"Feeling you’re not alone with your feelings, or your problems, that someone else is shouldering the burden with you, can offer tremendous relief."
Different parts of this post will speak to different people (though all of it is really excellent advice) but for me this is the key with relation to writing. One of the things people with depression say most is that they often don't want to hear survivors' stories. They just can't relate, it makes them feel worse. They need to hear stories from other people going through what they are. Of course, this is really hard – when we are right down there, the last thing we are able to do most of the time is blog about it let alone write prose or poetry – most days it takes every bit of energy we have to get out of bed. But it's important, when we can and do write, that we remember this, and do so in a balanced way, not always appending "and look, I got through it, so can you". Sometimes it's enough just to talk about how we felt. And doing so can make all the difference to someone else who thinks they're the only one.
Thanks, Dan, for this. I guess everyone deals with depression differently. Some people (like me) like to get through it as quickly as possible with little said and move on while others talk about it candidly. I think it's great that you are openly bipolar and that you speak at conferences about it. It's so important that people know they aren't alone. I hope more writers who suffer from depression (even once in a while) will blog about it.
Great post! I struggle with long periods of time when I'm so demotivated and/or depressed that I can't write a word, and these tips are all so useful. Speaking of which, I'm going to resist the urge for another cupcake and go for a run…
Yay – I'm glad you're going to skip the cupcake and go for a run! I think my problem lately isn't writing related so much as kid related. My 20-month old is just a handful lately, and I feel like my only time to write, blog, exercise, etc. is after 8 p.m. when I'm too tired to do anything at all. But this too shall pass 🙂
Apologies for the typos!
chogyam trungpa rinpoche is a famous Buddhist teacher who so suffered FTP
Depression and used Vipassana meditation to cope w it -so going back to the question if artists are more prone to it/ or create art because of it – I m not sure that has been statistically proven
More apologies for additional typos and abrupt sentences – using the iPhone to respond while my 7 month old jumps on my belly may not be the best way to post a comment!
Chocolate? I heard that’s a miracle cure for everything 😉 – ok- I m going to stop comment – so that I stop sounding like Spam.
I'm glad you wrote about this and that you did so with such gentleness. I too have suffered from depression, years ago now. I successfully treated it through therapy and medication, neither of which I need now, and I moved past that dark pit. And now I know how to recognize it when its maws come gaping. Do I think depression is related to writing? Yes. And I also think that a lot of us can easily fall down that hole in the business because the rejection is so hard. Your points for staying strong work.
Thanks for sharing this, Sierra! So glad you have moved past that dark pit. It's not a fun pit to be in.
Hi Meghan, Thank you for writing about this – depression, anxiety, self-loathing – all these are bad states to be in. Writers and other creative people might well suffer from them more because we put ourselves out their in such a personal way, so the rejections hurt.
All writers interested in depression might want to read Darkness Visible, by WIlliam Styron (sp?) – an incredible book on the subject of serious depression.
For me, I've used meds a couple of times for depression/anxiety – under doctor supervision – and found them to be a great resource when I needed them.
Most times for me now, meditation, sleep and de-stressing are best. Writing actually helps sometimes, if I can turn off the critic in me.
Thanks again
Diane, thank you for sharing this! I love hearing everyone's stories. Another friend mentioned Darkness Visible in an e-mail. I'll have to check it out. I hope we can all get through our low periods with meditation (or yoga in my case), sleep and a few walks in the woods. Like Mark said, we should all be doing those things anyway.
I've suffered from bipolar and ADD for years–specializing in depression 🙂 –so I know from whence you speak. I appreciate your handling of this topic and would like to note that, while not everyone is the same, for creative types there is much wisdom in the counter-intuitive idea of exercising. This is so difficult for me as I love to "be in my head." But it is one of the most effective ways of combating depression.
Thanks, Chris, for sharing your thoughts on exercising (as I sit here trying to get motivated to go running.) It helps me tremendously, too. It's just not always easy to get out there and do it.
I'll join the chorus of writers who have also suffered from depression. During mine I had to stop writing — I found I was adding to the problem by piling on the critic voice that Diane talks about. We writers are "sensitive types" who tend to "feel more deeply" — I put these phrases in quotation marks not because I'm being ironic but because sometimes these facts (however true) bring little succor when the black dogs are howling. My book about coming to prayer as a skeptic (THE WATER WILL HOLD YOU) is as much about depression as anything — and no, I don't claim that prayer "cures" depression. But it can help us feel less alone with the pain, especially when we find those psalms that describe despair so perfectly. And, yes, absolutely, swimming helps. The water DOES hold you. Reading saved me on many days — everything from Jane Eyre (for the gazillionth time ) to Noonday Demon (an amazing book on depression by Andrew Solomon, who wrote it while suffering, which is amazing in & of itself — though I did have to skip some chapters when the black dogs were really loud). Thank you, Meghan, for a sensitive and caring post.
Thank you for a great comment, Lindsey! I love swimming (and plan to go tomorrow) – both the exercise and the negative ions make me feel better (I've read that the negative ions in water combat the negative effects of the positive ions we get from electronics). Noonday Demon sounds as daunting as Darkness Visible. Not sure I'd want to read either one when I was feeling down. But I do love Jane Eyre!
Rain also emits negative ions, I read once, which supports my strangely un-Californian preference for rain over constant sunshine. OK, back to work!
That's so interesting, Lindsey (and makes perfect sense). But then why is the suicide rate so high in the Pacific Northwest? Maybe a good balance of rain and sunshine (which we have here in the Bay Area) is ideal?
If writers get depressed because they're writers, why do other people get depressed? Could it be that artists don't really feel "more deeply" than other people?
Also, when we talk of Hemingway and Styron and other depressed writers, let's not overlook the drinking. If you consume depressants, they will depress you whether you're an artist or not.
There is a quality of writing that has the ability to shine a light on any issues we might carry. A need for validation, an escapist habit to avoid other issues, the fear of not measuring up… Pretty much anything could be exacerbated by deciding to be a writer. On the flipside, if a light has been shone on a places you typically choose not to tread, then deciding to be a writer has the potential for ample opportunity to address it. Impatient? Become a writer. There’s no way to rush that. Fear rejection? Send out 50 query letters on a ms you’ve spent five years on. Take care, take GOOD care of yourself in the process, but fear not the struggle. Writing could be the best decision you ever made!
Patti – good point about the drinking. I do think, though, that the writing life, like that of painters and actors and other unstable professions can aggravate depression.
There is a quality of writing that has the ability to shine a light on any issues we might carry. A need for validation, an escapist habit to avoid other issues, the fear of not measuring up… Pretty much anything could be exacerbated by deciding to be a writer. On the flipside, if a light has been shone on a places you typically choose not to tread, then deciding to be a writer has the potential for ample opportunity to address it. Impatient? Become a writer. There's no way to rush that. Fear rejection? Send out 50 query letters on a ms you've spent five years on. Take care, take GOOD care of yourself in the process, but fear not the struggle. Writing could be the best decision you ever made!
I like your thinking, Rebecca. What a better way to toughen up than to become a writer! Sometimes, though, it's good to take a step back and remember that it's the job and not our life per se that is so difficult.
This is a great post about an important subject. I think I should run my piece on this subject again soon. There's been new research done that shows the very act of deep, concentrated thinking depletes serotonin in the brain and causes depression. That's why your advice to exercise is especially good. Or have sex. Or go to a party. Or watch a Will Ferrell movie (well, maybe not the latest one) Do something that requires no thought. Seriously. Very hard for a writer, but it's for your health!
Anne, I'd love to read your piece on this subject. I'll do a search for it on your blog. That's so interesting that deep, concentrated thinking depletes serotonin in the brain – who knew! Watch a movie, have sex, and go to a party. Who doesn't want that kind of advice?!
This is a GREAT post, Meghan. Thanks for emailing me about it. Every writer needs to read it. We write because we want to write. Most of us will never become a best selling author, certainly not in today's book reading/book publishing world. So everything you say here is true. We need balance. We need to be wise. I've spent the past few days while waiting for my ebook to launch getting organized. I've told myself I must spend less time staring at the computer. I need to use my time more wisely. Go into the computer. Comment on some blogs and on facebook and Twitter, then turn off the machine. Read for a while. Walk on my treadmill. I did this yesterday, and was more relaxed than I've ever been! I've also started writing again–a short story that's almost finished–in time to enter it in a contest. My goal was to write as close to a thousand words as I could, and I did–on an old laptop that isn't connected to the Internet!
And I've been inspired by other writers/bloggers like you–and Anne Allen. We need contact with the outside world, even if it's (for me almost the only way) through the Internet. Thank you!
Ann, thanks for this. Congrats on the launch of your ebook and on getting a thousand words done yesterday! It's so important for us to keep writing, to keep exercising, and to keep reading in addition to blogging and commenting on other people's blogs! I'm reading a book right now that I'm so engaged in I've stopped caring about Twitter and Facebook and blogs for a few days. It feels great to be that wrapped up in a book again.
I'm not a writer, I'm a designer but when I get catatonically unmotivated I try to do the uncreative administrative tasks that are always failing to the wayside: organize my hard drive, do backups, clean out my inbox, clean my keyboard, desk, vacuum office, etc. It's less painful than trying to force creativity. It also always helps lift my mood because it feels productive and proactive.
Alta – Doing that kind of stuff makes me feel better and sometimes it just makes me more depressed! 🙂 Getting outside away from the house and all endless work makes me happiest – exercise and fresh air are my best cures.
I’m not an extroverted type of person, never was and never have been, so when I get into a slump and I can’t write anymore, I grab my journal and go somewhere I don’t feel comfortable. Some where loud and crowded, usually into a mall. I sit down and write exactly what I see, and only what I see. By the time I get back home, my mind’s in a different state and I find I can usually write what I want again.
Andie, your comment showed up in my dashboard, but not on the blog, so I posted it for you (which is why you have no picture). IntenseDebate is buggy. What a great idea to go somewhere crowded and just write what you see. I bet sitting in a cafe eavedropping on conversations would be a great way to come up with some interesting dialogue, too (and just get a feel for how people talk to write new dialgoue). Thanks for stopping by!
[…] Monday, but “Memoir Tuesday” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. It is also Memoir May here at Writerland, which means I’m editing memoirs for 30% off my regular rate while my own […]
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Thank you for sharing this very insightful post. I cannot completely say I have suffered major depression but I have had bad, meaning, devastating days. I am not a writer but I have one good way of fighting depression. Aside from all the other ways you have mentioned like exercising, talking to a friend, eating, getting enough rest, picnicking or jumping into a lake, I sing; and at times I write songs. I do have a passion for singing; not the type who wants to be really famous but one who fills contented and happy just by singing around friends and families or just by myself. Music had saved me a couple of times from totally giving up and I am really glad that I stuck to what I love doing. My only advice to those who are feeling down right now is to get up. Smile! You do not own all the problems in life. Some of them are mine!
Patti – excellent factor about the consuming. I do think, though, that the composing lifestyle, like that of artists and stars and other volatile careers can worsen depressive disorders.
We could be making a lot of money! Instead, we chose to follow our hearts because we love literature and we love words, and we wanted to give back to others some of the joy, fulfillment, and knowledge we have reaped from the many books we have read throughout our lifetimes. That and because we love to write.http://www.wordcountonline.net/
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I'm not a author, I'm a developer but when I get catatonically uninspired I try to do the uncreative management projects that are always unable to the wayside: arrange my hard drive, do back-ups, fresh out my mailbox, fresh my key-board, table, machine office, etc. It's less agonizing than trying to power creativeness. It also always helps raise my feelings because it seems effective and practical.
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