Do you feel that your mood affects your fanfics?

[LittlefootAndAliTogether]

I mean, I've noticed that lately, my stories are getting darker, in part due to frustration in my personal life and many weeks of poor sleep.  

Also, the more depressed I feel, the more tragic things tend to happen in my stories (sometimes I do it to my characters, feeling that if I'm upset, they're gonna be upset too).

Also, after feeling really misunderstood and like I don't belong anywhere, I've poured that feeling out into both Chomper and Litltefoot in my fanfics.  

Feeling that I'm not important and need to be that way, I've poured that into Ruby.  

Also, when I'm feeling aggressive, I've been making Chomper and Ptero more aggressive and vindictive.


When I'm happy, the stories usually are happier.  

When I feel out of it or just plain empty, my stories usually lack detail or flow.  

On the other hand, experiences I have had or have sometimes give me insights into the characters.  After doing so well in high school only to do normal or even struggle in college, I admit, my ego took a beating and my brains that I thought I had made me feel that I could be normal in some ways as I often didn't get picked for kick ball or whatnot and was always away from most of the others during recess and now that I'm older, have realized that there were some situations where people took advantage of me.  

I now wonder if Pterano may have felt ok as a kid or perhaps even inferior as a kid and hence wanted to a leader when he was older.  He started to build his narcissism as a wall around him as he needed to feel love and perhaps felt he wasn't getting it.  He thought too highly of himself and....POW....he lost his herd.

One wonders if other dinos, maybe longnecks and others, just walked by when Topps's wife and kids were killed and that's why he's so stern and bigoted and overprotective of Cera.  Perhaps he's got fear inside of him, especially if it may turn out Threehorns had a role in their deaths too yet he believes that Threehorns are superior to all the other kinds.  

Also, I started putting a bit of my own mother into my villainess Agatha (it makes her seem more sinister, but also a bit odd.)  

Anyway, do your own personal experiences affect your fanfics and give you new insights, either into the cannon LBT or your fanfics, as to what to put?  Maybe it's just me.

I know I've understood Chomper a lot more because of how I feel lately, that my disabilities and feeling that, because of the way I was born, even if I'm different that some others, that nobody will see it and that maybe I'm doomed in the end and cannot be different and that maybe I should just snap as they all expect me to anyway.

[Ducky123]

This is interesting. I'm not entirely sure if my writing suffers in such a tremendous way from my emotions. However, I know that I tend to write rather happy scenes when I'm happy myself while being sad usually results in a little darker and sadder chapters. The main events of my stories (those that I already decided to use, that is) aren't changing usually but I might come up with something new which is happy/dark when I'm in the respective mood.
There's one thing though that's affecting my writing even stronger than my emotions... If I'm not motivated to write, but do so nevertheless for I know that I need to get on with the story (I know I've been abandoning my writing a lot lately and that most of the recent stuff is written in R.E classes   ), then the outcome will be less satisfying.  :unsure:

[somerandomfangirl]

Yeah, my mood has been affecting my fanfictions a lot. For example, I was quite depressed when writing the last few chapters of my fanfic so they're pretty tragic and dark. Now that I'm in a happier mood, I want to write happier chapters, but I won't just jump up to it because it takes time to come out of the stuff I've put my characters through.

However, my mood's been up and down lately and I've been quite pessimistic so far this year so I've come up with some pretty sad ideas for my next fanfic. If I feel unmotivated and force myself to write then the outcome is usually pretty unsatisfactory for me. So yeah, I do feel like my mood has a big influence on my writing.  

[Midnight]

Not only my fanfics, but my mood can affect -almost universally for the worst- ALL my writings. If I'm feeling angry or sad, then I end up writing aggressively, while if I'm feeling ok and inspired, then I'm like a machine gun and I just fly thru the text, producing some high quality stuff.

So yes, it does affect my stuff.

[ImpracticalDino]

Reviving this thread because I think this is a great question that could spark very interesting discussion, and because nobody else currently active on the forum has answered this question yet (except Ducky123). It's also nice to hear one's own personal experience about a certain thing.

I'm sooo distracted all the time for some reason, and it's not funny. I've been wanting to start writing...but I dunno. When another thing pops up in my mind, I go to that. Then I get distracted again when I move on to the next thing, only to repeat the cycle. It doesn't only apply to that, but literally anything I set my mind to do. It just gets delayed and/or forgotten.

[OwlsCantRead]

Though not to a great extent (primarily because I would have pre-planned the plot way before actually writing it), I find that I have a lull after posting anything. Makes it hard to do anything when you get dispassionate immediately after releasing anything.

But other than that, I would say yes. I often let my emotions creep into my words, which is often useful as my style is very emotional and introspective. Some of the words and feelings the characters feel are ones I feel in real life. Write what you know, as they say.

[rhombus]

I try to not let periodic emotional shifts affect my writing, and for the most part it is not an issue as I generally establish a plan for the plot before I begin to write a multi-chapter story.  My usual strategy, if I am in an emotional state that would go against the plan that I have for a scene, is to wait until I can enter the appropriate mood before I begin writing a scene. Though this can interfere with a coherent writing schedule on my end - as the long delay in Pursuit of Endless Day can attest to.

[Anagnos]

I'm sooo distracted all the time for some reason, and it's not funny. I've been wanting to start writing...but I dunno. When another thing pops up in my mind, I go to that. Then I get distracted again when I move on to the next thing, only to repeat the cycle. It doesn't only apply to that, but literally anything I set my mind to do. It just gets delayed and/or forgotten.

Being distracted while planning to write is easier than you might initially expect. However, there is a good way to counter this problem: create a routine that works for you. I didn't always have one either, but after countless attempts to write when I had free time and failing to do so, lead me to creating one that I find very suitable to my needs. For anyone that is curious what this routine is, allow me to demonstrate:

8AM - This is usually the time I wake up during the weekend and it allows me to do my usual morning routine before jumping into writing session. During this time, I eat my breakfast, brush my teeth and generally take care of all distractions that would otherwise impede my progress.

9AM - Downtime.

10AM - Writing session is underway. I usually try to write at least 1,000 words/day, but there are those days that I write even more than this. Of course, there are also days when writing just doesn't seem to work no matter what I do, and during such crisis, I usually just go do something else for a while and try again later. It very much depends on my particular mood of the day just how much time I invest in this task, the fastest session I've had thus far has been about 28 minutes long.

Unfortunately, since I'm currently employed, this particular routine only works during the weekends. Long story short, if you wish to stay motivated, create a schedule that works best for you. You don't have to write 2,000 words in one day, or even 1,000, for that matter. Work only when it is best for you and be sure to take care of any and all distractions before you start writing.

[Sleeping-force's-inside]

Not sure about my mood affecting the WRITING, but it does affect my away-from-pc-thinking-up. Most of those do not get written down when I can look at them later when my mood has settled XD Goodness knows some would get me put on a watchlist of some kind XD

I DO know that my past history affects it. The reason I have so many versions of 'lose and regain loved one'-fanfics, is because I lost my mother (in a manner of speaking, and I am over it) so I want characters to deal with something similar but then have the happy of REGAINING said loved one.

[Sovereign]

Depends on how I'm feeling overall. In practically all normal circumstances my mood doesn't affect my writing at all and I can ignore the distractions almost completely. However, if there is something really profound going on in your mind, like a tragedy or some really intense confusion or worrying, of course it affects your writing. But with the normal amount of stress and stuff, no, my mood doesn't affect my fics.

[ImpracticalDino]

@Anagnos: Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately in my case, getting rid of any and all distractions will be a challenge in itself to overcome. But eventually, I’ll get there.

[Ducky123]

People who stick to routines like this are shockingly boring and it shows in their writing. It lacks emotions. I write mostly when I'm feeling like it and my stories always try to put emotions and character development before plot. These people write plot-driven stories but at least to some degree disregard what their characters are actually feeling and push on the plot for the plot's sake. You get results, you meet deadlines but it's just not good writing.

Also how dare you revive a thread made by that member? (It's probably one of the 5% of posts that actually weren't bad lol)

[Anagnos]

People who stick to routines like this are shockingly boring and it shows in their writing

I'm rather dumbfounded by this comment. People usually stick to routines because it helps them be consistent. I don't know about your writing habits, but I certainly wouldn't be able to perform at maximum effort if I didn't have a stable schedule to hold on to. You're allowed to hold your own opinion, but all I ask is that you be a little more considerate of other's feelings. Calling someone ''boring'' is just not the right way to go if you desire to give them constructive feedback.

It lacks emotions. I write mostly when I'm feeling like it and my stories always try to put emotions and character development before plot. These people write plot-driven stories but at least to some degree disregard what their characters are actually feeling and push on the plot for the plot's sake. You get results, you meet deadlines but it's just not good writing.

Creating emotional scenes, and especially emotional feelings within the characters is often easier said than done. This is something everyone struggle with at some point. I don't count desirable content as being along the lines of, ''He/she felt sad''. There are a lot of good ways to express emotion in the narrative, but this certainly isn't a good example. Everyone here is largely different in personality and what they consider ''good writing''. All of us are entitled to voice our own opinion, but that's just it. An opinion.

I'm going to stop here before I say something that's going to cause further drama in this thread.