Getting lost in a character — how my writing affects my emotions & mentality

 Writing

Hello, my friend! 

Today I am going to be sharing some of my writing journey with you. Specifically with emotions and mental space. 

I have found out that when I write I feel everything my characters feel. This is good in a way that I can get into my characters’ heads and be able to write like it is the character speaking and not me. The downside is I FEEL EVERYTHING MY CHARACTERS FEEL. 

This affects my mental health and emotions. 

This can affect me both in good and bad ways. First I am going to give a good example in my writing life, then a not-so-good example. 

Good Example

So this month I have been writing my Summer Book which you have heard me talk about a lot of you have been here anytime in the past month. 

This summer book has been so fun and life-giving to me. I feel happy, summery, sunshiny, and just a better human when writing this story. I feel what my characters feel, which for the most part is happiness and joy. 

I write in the mornings and when I come downstairs my mom has even said how I am and look happier after I write, which is how she can tell I've been writing! 

Writing this happy summer book is more than just writing. It is being and becoming these characters and feeling what they feel. It is affecting my emotions and mentality to be happier and more positive. 

This is a really good experience with writing and now I want to write more and more happy books that make ME feel good. 

A good rule of thumb is to write what you love, what interests you, and what makes you happy and gives you life. 

The Not-So-Good Example 

Now this book I haven’t actually written. I started outlining it but it got to a place where I had to stop for my mental health. 

I have always been interested in wars, specifically World War 2 and the Holocaust. After getting the honor of being on a zoom call with a Holocaust survivor in February of this year, the ideas were flying. I had all this inspiration and I found my story. 

I was so excited to write it. I loved my characters. I would put myself in my main girl’s head and feel everything she felt. That was part of the problem.

My main girl was right in the middle of the holocaust. Her and her family. In wanting to be authentic and make it feel like the time, I put myself in the mindset of what it would be like to live in that time. The pain, fear, anxiety, sadness, loss, and so much more. All of it started to crash down on me. Then I got into research. I researched like crazy wanting to give this book the right feel. 

So many deaths and ways people died. The heartbreaking tragedies, the losses, the brutal killings. It all became too much. 

Every day I felt like crying, every day it started feeling hard to breathe, and every day I just wanted to not do anything. I stopped being excited to write. 

It was a surprising experience. I didn’t know my writing and going into my characters could affect me in such a way. 

One day I will write this historic fiction but for the time being, I am going to stick with happy books and fantasy. 

Final Thoughts 

Once I heard a writer talk about her own challenges in writing. For one of her books (which is my favorite of hers called Romanov ), she had to take extended breaks from her book because the story was affecting her in such a way that was hard for her. If you read the book you know that it is the story of the Romanov family during a very hard time in Russia. You see the family struggle and be mistreated but they stay happy and positive even in the hardest situations. 

I think when you really become a good writer, this is a sign. (In my opinion). When you can feel what your characters feel and write that into a story, those feelings will come across, and you can feel them. You can feel the joy jumping off the pages or the sorrow weeping out the sides. 

You feel everything as the reader and that is because the author becomes the character and feels every single feeling and emotion so YOU could feel. 

It is a privilege of being an author and a challenge. 

It can affect you in a good way, making you feel happy, excited, and joyful. Or it can cause you pain, sadness, and heartbreak. I understand the joy and I also understand the challenge. 

I’m not trying to scare you away from writing. I think writing is incredible and such a gift. I am SO grateful God gave me this gift of storytelling. That is what I am, a storyteller. 

All I want to do is share my process of writing and how it affects me. This is not the same for every writer but it is true for me. I want to write to show you a bit inside my head and maybe help you see into the writer's brain. 

Check out my Character Creation Series where I show you how to write amazing characters who feel real! 

• The 4 keys to creating powerful addictive characters who feel real! Where I talk about misbelief, behavior, desire, and fear in detail. 

•  Backstory: how your past affects your present 

• What Does Backstory Look Like For Your Characters?  

Discussion Time

Thank you so much for reading this post! I hope you liked this Writing post about how my writing affects my emotions and mental space. 

I want to hear from you! Comment below and tell me if you liked this post about writing. Tell me, if you are a writer, do you get this too? When you write do you become the characters, so much so, that you actually feel everything they feel? Have you had any negative feelings from becoming your character? I would love to chat! 

Be sure to subscribe to this blog to stay in the know because I post new content here every week (Fable Rose Fridays). 

XOXO Moriyah 💛