Writing a depressing scene and getting sad in the process?

I was writing this one particular scene months ago and it was pretty sad. Anyway I was listening to the radio at the time and the song 'Everything I Do' played and all of sudden I started getting really sad. The scene I was writing was depressing already and now the song was very touching so it made it worse. I actually had to stop writing the scene for a few hours.

So I was wondering, has this ever happened to any of you? Where you are writing a sad scene( like a tragic death scene) and at the same time something on your TV or radio is just as sad or touching and the combo of the two makes you depressed?

 

Absolutely! I wrote a scene where my character was dying and I was sobbing the entire time.

 

Over the course of nearly three years, I wrote Lest Ye Be Judged. In one of the final scenes, I had Leia kill her own father at his request. For the entire scene while I was writing it, I couldn't stop crying.

I also cried in To Cast Away Stones during the writing of Order 66.

 

Actually I get happier writing a sad scene, almost as if it's sucking up all the sadness I might be having and putting it into the story.

However, writing a happy scene, I do get the giggles so apparently it doesn't work in reverse for everything.

 

I definitely get sad when writing a death scene. I recently had to write the same death scene twice because stupid me lost the hard copy... now that made me really depressed, and it helped to share it here. The responses helped me to get through writing it the second time.

I try not to listen to the radio when writing, because you never know what's gonna play. It can really be detrimental.

 

Actually, the first time I ever wrote something that made me cry, I lost it due to a file corruption and then decided to rewrite it and ended up never killing the character and continuing the "Ending" for 180 more pages.

 

Have I ever cried? No. When killing off an OC that I had spent over two years writing, my initial thought was--after getting near that point in the story--that I couldn't do it. I really had to wrestle with the decision of actually killing the character, and what it would mean to the other characters, and to me as the writer.

And, speaking of the radio, with the character leaving a widow behind, I can't listen to Pearl Jam's song Come Back the same way again...

 

I did cry when I had to kill Han (and make him say goodbye to Leia) in one of my first stories. Re-writing the freezing chamber scene for another story proved to be very difficult as well, I had to do it in 'installments', about one paragraph each time.

 

Happens to me all the time. You should see how restless I become when I writi some action.
*bounces around*

 

Yeah, on the flip side, when I write something humorous, I get a fit of giggles... which is why I try writing something really funny when no one else is around because otherwise I get these strange stares.

 

I've had it happen in some of the stuff I've written, but I look on it as a good thing. I think having that emotional connection with the characters serves to make what you're writing that much more compelling to read.

 

I had it happen while finishing a story in a cafe near my house.

Thank God only one or two other people were in there and they weren't paying too much attention to me!

 

I wrote a depressing vig because I was angry, and it made me sad. Plus a whole lot angrier. That was a fun day.

I'm more affected by the sad/angry things I write than the funny stuff. I might smile while I'm writing humor, but I don't usually giggle or burst out laughing. I guess that's because at the end of the day, the sad/angry is more for myself, while the humor is more for other people to laugh at (in a good way, I hope).

 

I had to reply to this.

Yes, this has happened to me! All the time. I'll be working on a sad scene, whether it's just very dramatic, or perhaps a tearjerker, and some music will come on (Usually it's actually my sister playing on the piano) and I'll start balling as I'm typing. Lol, I've actually managed to get my glasses wet a few times. Don't ask me how.

I believe the worst case of this scenario (which happens quite often to me, actually,) was about a year ago, when I was writing up a very AU Obi-Wan death scene. I had to take a break from that one - too depressing.

 

When I work on a sad scene, I actually make sure I have depressing music in the background. It helps to make the scene more dramatic, I guess.

It's happened to me only once, that I sat down writing with tears in my eyes. Memorable writing moment for me.

 

This happens to me more when I'm writing original characters more than canon ones. I suppose because I can almost literally feel the pain they're going through and it just makes me tear up and I make sure to keep tissues handy when we write scenes like that, I usually have my stash of emo music or stuff like Padme's funeral music for writing fics.

 

A tip for that? When you get depressed while writing, don't put the story away. Channel everything you're feeling into your writing, and then it will be even more authentic.

 

I usually have my stash of emo music

I just flashed back to those embarrasingly angsty high school days when I wrote angsty teen poetry. Want to see a truly "depressing" scene? Read that godawful stuff.

Come to think of it, has anyone ever gone back over their depressing scenes a year later and still felt the same way? I can't say that about my angsty teen poetry (some guy doesn't like me, oh no waaaa). With some of the vigs I wrote a couple years ago, even though my mood and circumstances and general outlook on life have changed since then, I can still feel that emotional punch.

 

Yes I did when I was writing some of my fics or when I was painting Obi-Wan holding Luke and Obi-Wan with his crèche master. Both paintings were for those fics.

 

I have never killed of a Star Wars character (still somewhat new to fanfic) but I have when writing my own story. I had to write a scene where one of the main characters was told about his father's murder and sobbed the whole way through.

I can imagine what it would be like if I ever decided to kill off one of my favorite Star Wars characters in a fic...

 

I'm the same way. Writing sad scenes for me is more of a release than a burden for me, as well. My family claims they love watching me write happy scenes, because my seemingly spontaneous giggles are amusing.

I suppose writing of any kind brings me joy.

 

I've had an experience where I had to write something creepy and ended up creeped out while writing it. (...and did everything I could think of to not have to go home and do it, either... that didn't work out so hot. Never tell your muse "NO! I'm not doing it! You can't make me!" for four straight hours. Because it can, and it will.) But there have been times where I find myself having to pause and get a grasp of what I'm writing and realize that, were it to happen in RL, would be just plain heart breaking and utterly depressing. But I guess that's kinda why the sad things are as important as the happy things in life. Balance, you know?

 

All the time...Since most of my romances have a healthy dose of angst.

But the two scenes that caused me the most grief, literally, were in my epic The Path of Dreams. In the first scene Sith Lord Jacen and his apprentice Ben fight and kill Luke and Mara...Mara being Ben's Sith Sacrifice. The other scene was the final duel between newly minted Sith Lord Ben and his very pregnant wife, Jysella... I definitely had a long good cry after that.



FL

 

It happens to me sometimes when I'm writing a scence that deals with the sadness of one of my OCs, because I have to get inside their head for it to be able to come across right. In some ways, I actually find that it helps me to write the piece. If I don't do this, I find that it makes that point in the story seem fake. But you have to make sure that you don't go too far with it because it can hinder it as well.

There was a point in my life when I felt depressed, so virtually everything I wrote was depressing as well. When that happens, you do have to take a break from writing.

 

Wow, I must be in the minority. I generally don't feel much of anything while writing. Sad scenes and humor generally produces the same mindset. I can be depressed and write humor without breaking a smile, and I can be extremely happy while killing a char. Reading others' works can change my mood, but my own generally leaves me unaffected. However, with some joint works that I do, I do sometimes feel sad or pained if this or that happens, but I attribute that to my partners? works, as opposed to my own.