Good Times
By Kathleen Bolton | September 14, 2009 |
Sometimes the planets align favorably. Muse is dropping their new CD today, and advanced reviews are stellar. Mitchell was finally eliminated from Project Runway. Therese and I are going to the Idols Live! concert tonight for an evening of cheesy fun (and I’ll be able to see my t.v. boyfriend Adam Lambert kill Led Zep). Yesterday, I delivered a solid sample for an upcoming WP project (I’ll let you guys know the full details if I snag it). And CONFESSIONS OF A FIRST DAUGHTER has sold out in all my local bookstores.
I try to be a glass-half-full type of person, but it goes against my wiring. Cynical nature aside, I’m in a pretty good mood these days, despite my community being gripped by swine flu panic and some harsh layoffs.
One benefit is that my good mood is leading to an explosion of ideas. I can’t seem to stop scribbling loglines for my idea folder. Surely I’ll look back on September 2009 as my personal Elizabethan Age.
This is the opposite of what researchers are calling “depressive reflectiveness”, where people who are subject to mood disorders are also more highly creative than people who are less moody (click the link; the whole article is fascinating).
The research of Verhaeghen and colleagues shows when people are in a reflective mode, they may become more creative, depressed, or both. Previous research shows that when people are in a ruminating mode, they are more likely to be depressed, he said.
“If you think about stuff in your life and you start thinking about it again, and again, and again, and you kind of spiral away in this continuous rumination about what’s happening to you and to the world — people who do that are at risk for depression,” he said.
Verhaeghen, who is also a novelist and describes himself as a “somewhat mood disordered person,” had a particular interest in the connection between creativity and this ruminating state of mind.
I’ve always thought there was something valid in the notion of the tortured artist, that madness and genuis march side by side. But when I’m in a bad mood, I shut down. I can’t think for crap. My focus is finding some chocolate or a cocktail and chilling.
Are you more creative when you are in a good mood, or a bad one? Does being in a “reflective mood” enhance your creativity? Or kill it?
As for me, I’m going to try and ride my good mood pony for as long as she wants to go.
Kathleen Bolton is co-founder of Writer Unboxed. She writes under a variety of pseudonyms, including Ani Bolton.
She has written two novels as Cassidy Calloway: Confessions of a First Daughter, and Secrets of a First Daughter–both books in a YA series about the misadventures of the U.S. President’s teen-aged daughter, published by HarperCollins, and Tamara Blake, for the novel Slumber.
I’m with you: “… when I’m in a bad mood, I shut down. I can’t think for crap. My focus is finding some chocolate or a cocktail and chilling.”
Mostly. Subtract the cocktail. Replace “for crap” with “about anything other than what I’m upset about.” Either way, still no productivity when I’m in a bad mood.
Not that I’m super productive in a good mood either. :P
“Are you ruminating or reflecting?” I’m going to tape that to my computer monitor.
Thanks for the post, Kath, and woohoo on sending in that sample, your bulging idea folder, and sellouts of Confessions!
Congratulations Kathleen on all your success! And thanks for the post – I feel as you, that the worse I feel the less creative I become; but my good mood usually is a result of being creative, so it’s quite a conundrum!
I’m one of those ruminating, moody writers. When I’m happy, I just want to relish the happiness and wallow in joy. When I’m down, I get a lot more ideas, probably as an escape route from my depression.
I don’t know, for me when the world is bright and shiny, there’s nothing really to write about. When it’s bleak and icky, there’s ample room to try and make it bright and shiny again.
I am definitely more creative when I am blue, but I have to find the energy to channel and record these bouts of creative thinking, which is not easy to do with the lack of energy that comes with being depressed.
Congrats on your good news and I hope you ride your good mood to great things!
being the superstitious person that i am, i have a hard time rejoicing when things are just so good, cause you know there’s an anvil out there just waiting to find your head! on the other hand, the worm always turns, as my daddy used to say, so what the hey, celebrate! i too am mood disordered.
Damn my sunny nature. It’s screwing me again. Maybe it’s time for a quality addiction.
I’ve got “Bipolar II Disorder”, and my doctor often speaks to me of creativity and its link to my moods. It is “hypomania” that allows me to write 10,000 words in a single day, come up with endless ideas, and generally tap into thoughts that well-adjusted people steer clear of. “Bad” moods are productive in different ways, though more in terms of brainstorming than actually producing prose.
It is an interesting subject, and much ink has been spilled exploring it.