You write stressed, they read stressed
Today I had a realisation about the art-making process.
But first, a story.
In March of 2020, I flew back to my parents' place in Malaysia to avoid the UK lockdown (better to be stuck in a hot and sunny country, right?).
It was a very stressful time for me - mostly because of my complicated relationship with my parents. Doubly so because of the lockdown rules (imagine living with them for 6 months!)
I was fighting tooth and nail every single day to keep my inner peace, but I would still feel all sorts of negative emotions, especially while I was writing.
I never let it get in the way though - at the time, I was committed to writing a blog a day, and nothing was going to stand in my way. So I kept writing, even though my emotional landscape was looking a bit like a forest fire.
Looking back at those blogs from 2020, I realise that a lot of them have a negative undertone to them. They were brash, harsh - almost like I sounded frustrated and fed up.
And that's because I was!
My emotions spilled onto the page, and you could definitely feel it if you read it.
My point: Writing (and all forms of creativity) is a spiritual and emotional process. Our emotions will be reflected back in our work, whether we think of it consciously or not.
It just makes me realise how important it is to work through out my inner world before I try becoming a 'writer' or whatever.