Thread: What is writing to you?

Originally Posted by Llama_Guy

And I've very heavily perceived a link between creativity and increased exposure to depressive disorders and tendencies, which is really fascinating. maybe it's cognitive, but there's also the cultural impact; creative people are often different from their peers, and as such often end up on the outside of their school socially, leading to an increased frequency of depression and other psychological issues.

I hear it's actually been scientifically documented to a certain degree, though it's not always the case. I'd hesitate to identify a single cause for it, but I think the socio-behavioral theory fits better than the cognitive theory. I say this based on my own experience: my creativity is due to my isolation from the norms of my peers, and does not wax and wane each time I get depressed.

The cognitive argument was more general; i.e. you're generally creative, not only when you're depressed - but there's a correlation between inhibiting general creativity and being disposed to depression and other such disorders.

It's, as you say, most likely a multifaceted case; there's more than one cause and more than one effect.

(but we're kind of straying from the topic, now P:)

Writing is a lot of things to me. In one sense, it's a release. It's putting all the interesting ideas I have, and getting them all out. It's crafting the characters whose voices speak to me and creating the worlds I wish I could explore. In another sense, it's a way of fighting. It's a way of creating characters like me, who are POC, who are LGBTQIA, who are outside of the exclusionary 'norm' of things. Writing my own work allows me total creative control, so I can tell the stories I want, the characters I want. So I can avoid a romance and focus on friendship, or create a romance that makes sense to me. I write because if I don't, I'll never see the stories I really want.