Why It’s Harder To Write When You’re Happy

Oct. 3, 2011

By Kat George info

#jayzisgreek

Read more »

It’s easy to write when you’re riddled with angst, when you have so many feelings and so many feelings about those feelings you’re consumed by a maddening confusion. It’s easy when you can wax lyrical about disappointment and heartbreak; when you’re overflowing with emotional things to say; when all you want to do is drink whiskey and smoke cigarettes and channel your inner Hunter S. Thompson. It’s easy when you can lay everything out in terms of “existential” and “crisis” and “woe is me!”

But it’s not so easy to write when you’re happy. Not because you have less feelings or feelings about those feelings, or because your happy feelings are any less worthy of being written about than your sad feelings, but simply because being happy makes you want to do rather than respond. Being happy makes you want to go out and enjoy your happiness — there’s just no incentive for you to be crouching in half darkness over your notebook or laptop, muttering sinisterly and chain smoking for days on end without showering when you’re happy. Not that I’ve ever done any of that, I mean, I totally shower every day and stuff.

When you’re sad, one of your first instincts will often be analysis — why do I feel this way? What is actually happening here? How can I make myself feel better? Why doesn’t he/ she like me? Why can’t I get that dream job? Why did my father abandon me? OMG DO YOU ACTUALLY EXPECT ME TO GO TO THE SHOP TO BUY MORE ICE CREAM IN THIS STATE I’M IN? And in turn this analysis becomes your fingers tap-tap-tapping on the keyboard, which by and by becomes some sweet cash in your bank account.

Writing about bad feelings is also cathartic, in so far as getting shit off your chest (no matter how petty) is as therapeutic as it is self-indulgent. Moreover, going back and reading your emotional rants can often lead you to see JUST HOW SILLY YOU ARE BEING. You also get lots of sympathy from people who feel the same way, which makes you feel less alone and totally justified in your frivolous emotions. Moreover, you are passionate in these moments, foolhardy and reckless with your words and as a result you can be powerful and poetic to the point where you and others think WOW THAT’S POIGNANT.

When you’re happy: you don’t care why. You just are and it’s fabulous and you want to indulge it by running outside in fields of wildflowers, holding hands with your lover and throwing puppy dogs over rainbows. You want to prance through streets being overly nice to bank tellers and deli guys and spewing out meters and meters of colored scarves to make the neighborhood children laugh with delight. Maybe you’ll even make them some balloon animals.

Whatever it is that’s making you happy, you just want to enjoy it — you certainly don’t want to hole yourself up in a dank, windowless room writing moving things about your feelings, you want to be out FEELING THEM. You don’t want to talk; you want to do. You don’t want to reflect; you want to be. So it’s harder, much harder, to write when you’re happy. You know people want to read about your happiness, that yes, people will relate, just as they relate to your sadness. And you know that when you’re happy, you’ll rush through whatever it is you’re writing anyway, because you just want to thrust open a window looking down over a busy street and sing out to the crowd before you race down into the throng to embrace whatever it is that is making you so deliriously, distractingly, overwhelmingly happy. TC mark

You should follow Thought Catalog on Twitter here.

image – redcargurl

Tagged , , , ,

Bookmark and Share

70 Comments

Add Yours »

Cataloged in

Text Size:

A | A | A

  • Len Yeh

    exactly.

  • Len Yeh

    exactly.

  • Len Yeh

    exactly.

  • Len Yeh

    exactly.

  • Len Yeh

    exactly.

  • Len Yeh

    exactly.

  • Len Yeh

    exactly.

  • Len Yeh

    exactly.

  • Len Yeh

    exactly.

  • Janelle

    Amazing.

  • Janelle

    Amazing.

  • Janelle

    Amazing.

  • Janelle

    Amazing.

  • Janelle

    Amazing.

  • Janelle

    Amazing.

  • Janelle

    Amazing.

  • Janelle

    Amazing.

  • Janelle

    Amazing.

  • http://twitter.com/WTHKristinity K

    Kat, you really write so well. :-)

  • http://twitter.com/WTHKristinity K

    Kat, you really write so well. :-)

  • http://twitter.com/WTHKristinity K

    Kat, you really write so well. :-)

  • http://twitter.com/WTHKristinity K

    Kat, you really write so well. :-)

  • http://twitter.com/WTHKristinity K

    Kat, you really write so well. :-)

  • http://twitter.com/WTHKristinity K

    Kat, you really write so well. :-)

  • Taryn Boyle

    This is all true. Except the part about getting money for my whining.

  • Taryn Boyle

    This is all true. Except the part about getting money for my whining.

  • Taryn Boyle

    This is all true. Except the part about getting money for my whining.

  • Taryn Boyle

    This is all true. Except the part about getting money for my whining.

  • Taryn Boyle

    This is all true. Except the part about getting money for my whining.

  • Taryn Boyle

    This is all true. Except the part about getting money for my whining.

  • Taryn Boyle

    This is all true. Except the part about getting money for my whining.

  • Taryn Boyle

    This is all true. Except the part about getting money for my whining.

  • lkitz

    I whole-heartedly concur!! Well put! :)

  • lkitz

    I whole-heartedly concur!! Well put! :)

  • lkitz

    I whole-heartedly concur!! Well put! :)

  • lkitz

    I whole-heartedly concur!! Well put! :)

  • lkitz

    I whole-heartedly concur!! Well put! :)

  • lkitz

    I whole-heartedly concur!! Well put! :)

  • lkitz

    I whole-heartedly concur!! Well put! :)

  • Max

    “simply because being happy makes you want to do rather than respond” & “When you’re happy: you don’t care why. You just are and it’s fabulous…”

    Exactly. Another great article, Kat!

  • Customconcern

    kat i feel like you should have written that other article about being the other woman

  • yes

    #Goodbye Tiny Violin You Will Be Missed
    kat i love you and everything you write
    even your tags

  • http://www.facebook.com/irakly.chorgoliani IrakLy Chorgoliani

    I am sorry but this is not good

  • A.

    Yeh – I would have expected something better judging by the title …

  • http://hysterikaren.wordpress.com/ Karen

    It’s really simple but you said it well, Kat. :)

  • Anonymous

    You are one of the best and most relatable writers on TC. Fuck the h8trs.

  • Anonymous

    You are one of the best and most relatable writers on TC. Fuck the h8trs.

  • Dio_journal

    Makes total sense. Love your writing style btw.

  • http://twitter.com/bfeliciano Benjamin Feliciano

    People are dicks. This was good. <3

  • Sara David

    this is extremely relevant to my life right now.

  • http://twitter.com/mmtbutler Montana Butler

    Perfect

  • http://twitter.com/mmtbutler Montana Butler

    Perfect

  • apple

    i really like this :)

  • Guest2

    “muttering sinisterly and chain smoking for days on end without showering” you captured it perfectly

  • Guest2

    “muttering sinisterly and chain smoking for days on end without showering” you captured it perfectly

  • Arpita

    Hi Kat

    I really liked the way you have written the article. The topic is worth pondering on for hours. You article, for me, has opened up a Pandora’s box, full of questions.

    I suggest you push this topic further, because there are many stones left unturned; many questions beg your attention here. Like,What is this “happiness” that I feel? Why does it make me “feel so full” that I want “to do” than write? Why is contemplation not “fun”?Why do I need to “vent out when I am unhappy”? What does the act make me feel?
    Keep writing.
     
    Thanks and regards,Arpita

  • eibeibei

    I used to ask myself guiltily why there’s so much sad and negative scribbling in my journal instead of happy ones. Now I clearly understand why and it even gives me so much more relief knowing that I’m not alone.

  • Not Greek

    What is Zorba the Greek’s quote on the pen-pushers?  Something about how the people who really live life don’t have any time or desire to go write it all down…what a clever Greek.

  • …

    I hope this doesn’t come across as mean, because I really do mean it constructively when I say you tend to overwrite. Maybe you think it’s just your style–and maybe it is and I just don’t like it–but it can be really off-putting in otherwise good articles. 

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/adele-bird/ Adele

    I mutter and chain smoke in public, notshowering is optional but fairly frequent. I like that somebody else does the same, even if not for all the world to see.

  • Espadab

    I love all your posts, probably one of the only writers I have to stop what I’m doing (even if that’s already procrastinating) and read what you wrote. I don’t think you overwrite. You’re a writer! That’s what you do :)

  • erk275

    i don’t think the puppies would be very happy though.

  • Kcolvin

    You have good potential. If you really like to write, just clean it up a bit and learn a little more about writing as an art! If you learn something new weekly (or even every day) about your writing you’ll see an improvement! Seriously :)

  • Martina Boone

    Excellent post. So very true, and I like the way you captured the breathless happiness and in the moment feeling in the paragraph. Well done.

    Martina

  • http://twitter.com/Nick_Rolynd Nick Rolynd

    This is so very true. I just can’t write when I’m happy. I’m much better at writing when I’m somewhere in the negative end of the emotion spectrum. A great observation. The writing itself could use a little editing, but you have some great ideas here, so I’m not going to be too critical about it. =)

  • Abby

    Oddly enough, I found it much easier to write when I was happy. I’ve been through a crap-ton of death this month, and I have no will to do my writing or editing (which is why I’m commenting on your blog instead of writing and editing my own stuff). I spent the first half of September all happy and elated, and I typed the crap out of a novel for two weeks straight in my happy mood. The book has a pretty sad undertone, but is ultimately about redemption and happiness. All written when I was happy, but editing it while I’m sad is darn near impossible. Especially the sad and depressing parts, which come at unexpected moments (yeah, I know I wrote it, but I forgot.).

  • http://twitter.com/Quemaqua Michael Riser

    I actually don’t find this to be true for me at all. I’m far more productive when I’m happy. Misery breeds great ideas but not great production. Happiness brings ability to focus and work, but not as much beautifully oversaturated, decadent thought. I write or work basically the same amount whether happy or not because I’m trying to be considered a professional, but it’s far harder when I’m feeling defeated. Ideas I can write down and save for later. Motivation, not so much.

    Interesting how different writers can be. For every one I know who operates one way, I meet another who is the exact opposite.

    http://www.theflyingmonkeyapparatus.com

  • Christopher Poe

    I suppose this is more of an opinional matter, but I agree with it. My writing is so much more powerful when I am in a depressive state, and when I’m happy, I tend to stay away from my computer entirely. Happy writing is not iterating writing. We live in a negative world where all that is publicized and wrapped around the media is negativity. No one wants to read about someone’s typical dreams of collecting a fortune with a perfect husband with beautiful, talented children, and a perfect life. It never works out like that anyways. Some of the best writers do come off as being depressive people.

  • G Bubbles

    “throwing puppy dogs over rainbows” just made me laugh out loud, what a great way to start my day, well done.

  • http://howtobecharming.wordpress.com CallieIsAFreak

    Hahaha such a good post :)  It’s actually true for me, but it’s mostly your writing that I enjoyed- it’s hilarious! :)  Completely my sense of humour <3

Recently Cataloged