My arms are killing me, so, I haven’t written new fiction in two weeks. A little bit ago, I talked about how I wrote three short stories in a week. I’ve been editing and revising my work since I can’t write for extended periods of time. However, I found it fascinating how I manipulate myself in order to write certain feelings. I had to do this heavily for one of the pieces I wrote and there are two things I will do in order to achieve the feelings necessary to write a character.
The first one is simple, I think about the situation that I’ve put a character in and then I become that character. I flood myself with the emotions. So, if a character loses a loved one, I think of someone I love, close my eyes, and imagine they are dead. I run through the interactions I would make with others and how I would behave. I drive myself to actually crying, and then, I write. My mind is back to what it was before the exercise, that way I can write, but I have created a pool of emotions to drag into my piece.
The second way is more of a high level overview. If I am going to write a sad piece, I don’t need the emotions to be there, but I need the text to be representative of sadness. This is done through vocabulary choices and other techniques, but I begin the process before I even start writing. During the initial phases, I pull an acoustic album and play it. I will find albums that have the “vibe” needed to imbue me with the necessary tone. Then, I will start writing. After about twenty minutes, the needle will retract and I will be left in silence. I won’t notice the lack of music, but I will carry those tracks through me as I keep writing. Then, after I take a break, I turn it back on so I can get back into the right mindset. It allows me to take breaks but never lose the tone of my pieces.
I’m sure I manipulate myself in other ways, but those are two ways I consciously modify my mind’s state.