Does the current political situation keep you from writing?

[fugue]

I seem to have a choice: keep up with politics or write.

If I'm following what's going on in the country, it just consumes me. I spend all my time reading the net and posting to DU.

It takes me a couple days of no reading to decompress (discovered this when a friend and I "took a vacation" from politics shortly after the election), and then I can work again. But as long as I am following current events, the writing screeches to a halt.

Anyone else have this problem?

[halobeam]

1. What kind of writing are you doing?

I don't write at all about politics. I write poetry and short essays. This takes a huge amount of "atmospheric" correctness...lol.. and that is just NOT existent when I'm engrossed in the Bush dilemma.

[fugue]

10. Only vaguely political

I write fantasy fiction. There are political aspects--my lead characters are always very liberal ^_^--and I guess the politics is part of the point. C. S. Lewis wrote The Chronicles of Narnia to get Christian belief "past watchful dragons"; I'm sort of doing the same thing, only with a different end in mind.

But it's not the sort of thing that one must keep up with day-to-day politics to do. So the day-to-day politics sucks down that energy.

[DeepGreen]

2. I am a musician,,, the same thing has happened to me!

:(

[BigMcLargehuge]

3. not me

I find it's relatively easy to separate myself, fictionally, from the world an news of the day by making specific environmental changes to my writing space. The music, lighting, and manuscript open in front of me is sufficient to draw me into the story in which I am working.

I don't listen to talk radio like Air America or NPR when I am working on fiction, it's distracting, but I do listen to music.

[fudge stripe cookays]

5. What do YOU listen to BigMcLH?

Curiosity. We all perform better in different environments. :-)

[BigMcLargehuge]

9. it sort of depends on the scene I am writing at the time

or the musical obsession I have at the moment.

If the scene is extremely violent (as many are in a book about The Rape of Nanking) I tend towards military march style music, usually the militarily themed stuff from "The Best of Godzilla 1954-1975". Akira Ifukube is a master at creating mood. I also listen to Beethoven's 9th Symphony, the final movement is so epic that it helps me keep my large scale scenes appropriately large.

For other parts I tend to listen to whatever I've been listening to over and over and over again for the last few months. Lately it's been Coldplay's Rush of Blood to the Head album. It's quiet and complex enough to distract the part of my brain that wants to fart around at DU and pleasant enough to warm up the writng atmosphere.

Sometimes, usually when I catch a really good groove, I listen to the same song over and over and over again for dozens of hours.

[fudge stripe cookays]

4. Definitely.

It seems to be one or the other with me. And because my books are going to be the fun, girlie-girl, read-me-on-the-beach variety, it's hard to reconcile the two worlds. IT's very difficult to change from one mindset to the other. That's a good word...decompress. Usually, I read back voer what I've written and think, "That's really good. This could sell." Now, I sometimes look at it, and it's just words on a page. I can't feel anything. It takes me much self-talk to get myself back to my special place where I can create and be happy with something.

And after September 11th, I had to rethink some of what I'd written. I had a character married to a Turkish guy (Muslim), and knew that it probably would be well-received with everything going on.

So I changed him to a Greek instead. And I hated what I felt, but considering how much of America is so hostile right now, well...you know. Artistic compromise.

FSC

[tavalon]

6. Politics

have made me realize what a lousy writer I am. I never did it professionally, but never thought myself a slacker, either. I am a woman with strong opinions and strong emotions and plenty to say and write. Yet, it doesn't come out on paper the way it plays in my mind. In my mind, I am Thomas Paine or Patrick Henry, on paper, not so much so.

[verdalaven]

7. Yes, the election has become the center of my universe

It is scary to think that I have a deadline looming. I am hoping I can disengage after Jan 6th! Yes, I am pathetically addicted to the entire subject.

[stellanoir]

8. yes

I swore I was going to give up the news, the web, AAR, for a while after the election. After watching my worst fears manifest November 2nd- 3rd and all the widespread incidents of voting irregularities surface here and elsewhere since then, I can't seem to let go quite yet.

If this fraud is not exposed now we don't stand a prayer of winning another election.

Yet I know my creative process well. It's most erratic. I'll typically absorb a excessive amount of information, process it and then the writing just pores out of my fingers.

But it can be incredibly frustrating at times.

[fugue]

11. Yes, this is very much the problem for me

If we don't get the fraud exposed, I'd better pack up and move elsewhere. The Bush government is not gonna let me write my agnostic, liberal fiction.

I wish I knew what to do. Ignore the politics so I can write? But is my writing more important than the politics? I mean, the likelihood that my fiction will have a profound impact on the hearts and minds of Americans in sufficiently large numbers is remote. So, however, is the likelihood that I can do anything about the current political situation. So I sit here in limbo, feeling the urgency of the moment but not knowing what to do about it.

[stellanoir]

15. well here's how I had the best luck. . .

On second thought, I'd better PM you about this.

[mainer]

12. I'm under deadline, and having trouble writing

I've got till March to turn in the ms., but everything surrounding Nov. 2 kept me online way too much, had me way too upset, and kept me way too distracted. I know I should get off DU because it's just bad for my mental health, but I can't seem to tear myself away.

[xultar]

13. Yes, I feel paralyzed mentally or physically. n/t

[nostamj]

14. it did, but then I turned it around

and wrote political stuff.

my writing partner (music) and I had pretty much stopped writing until we decided to do a 'political' show. we were BOTH so wrapped up in political issues that we couldn't get motivated to continue with anything else. the result was "The Question W Revue" (there's a link to the script in the 'political humor' thread).

now, with THE CHRONICLES OF BOSH in progress (see the political poetry thread for a sample), I'm still writing political stuff...

(though not exclusively! we're finishing a campy 'speciality' number for a friend's show (THE 'OH MARY' SONG) and other projects.

after the holidays, we will, with some regret, start developing a new edition of the revue...

[DavidDvorkin]

16. It's made me write more

I'm back to various fiction projects with renewed enthusiasm. In addition, I've been writing some non-fiction, something I very rarely do, and putting it on my Web site, in a special essays section. (http://www.dvorkin.com/essays) I'm finding the non-fiction a great outlet for my anger, almost seeming to open the fiction floodgates more.

[Technowitch]

17. Nope, if anything it's encouraged me.

I keep my head down, don't read nearly as much news, and lose myself in my latest work.

I take it as one of the few blessings.

[kcr]

18. No, just the opposite

I find that politics is seeping into what I write. All my ides have politics at their core, now.

[Der Blaue Engel]

19. Depression keeps me from writing

...which should answer your question.

Three major events have derailed my latest novel: 2000 "election," 9/11, and now "election" 2004. I also have SAD, and tend to write most in the spring and summer; these events have all happened right around my usual crash time, which makes it even harder.

And right now, yes, I'm totally obsessed with the voter fraud, and spend most of my free (and much of my not-free!) time reading DU, listening to AAR, and surfing for news.

I'm hoping spending some of my obsession time here in this forum will get my head back "on message." :)

[WCGreen]

20. Oh yea, I had to decompose from the politcal

I write essays that occasionallu get published about economic issues from the miond of an accountnat who has the heart of a democrat,,,,

I also write unpublished short stories and have two novels more than half way done and two more in the idea stage..

I got an idea for a play but don't know how to write it. Could someone please contact me and we can maybe dicsuss how to colaborate.....

I am truly far too old to try and learn a new trick such as playwriting when someone who is apt can possibly bring my idea to fruition.....

[Pepperbelly]

21. I find extreme LAZINESS to be my biggest problem. nt

[dogmastomper]

22. Troubles? Many...

Before the election I couldn't write. Basically I thought that anything I wrote before the vote would be rendered useless. After the election, I still can't write. The current block has to do with topic again.
So I have this question, if any of you are up for it, what should we do now? Do we spend our time writing political stuff, or do we spend our time trying to go back and write the kind of stuff we wrote before the election?
When I try to sit down and write some personal well thought out poem, or a short story of the late 20th century archetype, I usually find that it rings false in our current situation, but at the same time I feel as though I should write something.
Has anyone researched what other writers who are called post-(insert event here) writers felt like during the initial stages of their post-(event) worlds?
I would be willing to bet that post-war writers feel a common bond among each other...whether it be WWI, WWII, Vietnam, etc...We are in the same sort of place right now...we are the post 2000 election people, the post 9-11 people, and the post 2004 election people at once.
How can we write when there's not enough time to catch our breath and accept one tragedy before another comes along?

[henslee]

23. Totally but I am working through it. First off, do not think for one

moment that posting regularly does not sharpen your writing skills. At the least, it forces you to write for an audience. At the most, the act itself is self instructive, at least it is for me. Its not until I am forced to articulate an impulse or a feeling that I truly understand it myself. Secondly, I find myself trying to instill in my writing, exactly what it is about this political situation that swallows me up. I try to infuse that sense of morale truth and urgency into my own work. Sure I fall short most of the time but when I don't its pretty obvious.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

24. It actually had the opposite effect on me

I write political fiction (as a hobby and with no intention of ever publishing it). Since * has come to power, my writing has become increasingly idealistic and my characters tend to be either liberal/centrist or Rockefeller Republican in political ideology. The more depressing the political situation becomes, the more I feel the need to retreat into my own political world where I can control the political trends and the political ideology and policies of the characters involved. It helps me deal with my depression at the present state of the world.

[Chovexani]

25. I find it helps my writing

My stuff is all about the escapism (sword-and-sorcery fantasy), so it's all good.

Keeping up on current events is helping me specifically with the project I'm doing now. It's very dark and angsty, set in a profoundly evil society filled with vicious backstabbing and politics are literally murder. You can see where our current state of affairs is sort of...inspirational.

[Plaid Adder]

26. It actually kept me writing, though it wasn't always

what I wanted to work on.

I found that right after September 11 I developed a compulsion to write about the situation. That's why I ended up doing the column. I also wrote a lot of Twilight-Zonesque near-future short stories that I'm never going to be able to sell, and I started the Livejournal, and, and, and, well, I guess writing is the way I process.

Now I'm trying to get back to doing some other kinds of writing, like the fiction and the stuff I do for the day job, that are less directly related to the political situation. So I guess you could say the political situation kept me from writing by keeping me writing.

Argh,

The Plaid Adder

[Zooza]

27. for about 5 weeks

I was in apoplexy. But I am starting to burst.

[kainah]

28. absolutely!

I was planning to begin my second book in early 2001. Nothing has happened with it. My first book was an autobiography of a fur trader and his Blackfeet (kainah :-) ) wife. The second was to be an account of the 1851 Horse Creek Treaty -- it would have involved years of research, contacting the tribes involved, etc. And I just cannot do it justice because I can't find the time. I keep asking myself, "If we don't survive this, who will care about 19th century western history?"

[Bouncy Ball]

29. Quite the opposite.

I have just started a book I hope to actually finish (LOL) that is political in nature (though it is fiction) and requires some research that DU is invaluable for. The danger is in doing my research, then dicking around on DU instead of getting back to the manuscript.

Politics and history are driving this book.

[BikeWriter]

30. The election theft puts me in a funk. :-( n/t

[Liberty Belle]

31. Yes. I haven't had time for fiction in months, although I'm

a published novelist. During the campaign and post-election traumatic stress period, I've focused all my free time on political writing. That includes my newsletter, the Liberty Belle Log, letters to politicians, letters to editors, and e-mails to friends on political issues.

Fortunately I have enough freelance journalism gigs to keep food on the table, but since my main client just informed me yesterday that they're cutting back the freelance budget by 30% this year, I'll have to buckle down and start spending more time marketing to find some new clients.

[iamjoy]

32. Yes!!

I am trying to write a novel and barely touched it during the campaign. Even now, I seem a little obsessed with politics and don't work on my novel as much as I should.

[elepet]

33. After the election

I went comatose,so to speak. Was barely functional.
After a couple of weeks I started writing a book I enjoy so much that I find it the best escape in town. It seems to absorb the negativity and somehow turn darkness into light for me. I don't know if that makes sense. Don't know if it will ever get published, but when I send the writing to people i know, they enjoy it, and maybe that bit of enjoyment is my contribution to making life here a little more bearable.