CALLING ALL WRITERS ... DO YOU SUFFER FROM W.S.A.D?

Victoria Cornwall
We have all heard about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), a depression which comes and goes with the seasons and may be linked to the amount of exposure to sunlight.  It can be debilitating and make the autumn and winter seasons very difficult for sufferers of this very real disorder.

     The condition got me thinking and asking myself if the seasons can affect other parts of our lives? As a writer, I know the seasons affect my ability to be creative and write. Not because it changes my mood and causes depression, but for far more shallow reasons. I am more creative in the winter when the clocks go back and the daylight hours end early. I find it easier to snuggle up with my laptop and write because, quite frankly, the wind, rain and limited daylight outside don't encourage me to do anything else. This is very different when spring arrives (with its blossoming blooms) and summer (with its long, warm days which are perfect for socialising). Needless to say I want to be outside instead of inside writing. Yes I think I suffer from Writers Seasonal Affective Disorder (WSAD), which, incidentally, is a condition I just made up!

Victoria exploring a Cornish rock-pool instead of writing

    So I asked my writing colleagues the same question, Are you more creative in any particular season and why? This is what they told me.

Kathleen McGurl
     Oh wow. I have never been asked this question before, and have never given it any thought. Ok, right, here goes. Putting my thinking hat on.
My instinct is to say I write more in the late autumn and winter. Those dark, rainy days when there's nothing much else to do but sit inside and write. But then, I remind myself, I always have more energy in the spring, when the days get longer, the trees are in bud, the birds are singing and the words are flowing... Wait, though, isn't it also fair to say that some of my best writing has been done during the summer months, even while travelling?
     So actually, I write all year round, fitting writing around everything else. Until recently I had a full time job so had to make do with writing in the evenings and at weekends - no scope to prefer writing in one season over another.  Just needed to get on with it, in whatever time there was available!

Kath being creative in the winter

Rae Cowie
      When Victoria suggested we share how the seasons affect our creativity and writing, I was thrilled! As someone who lives in darkest NE Scotland and suffers from mild SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), the rhythm of the seasons definitely helps structure my writing year.

     In spring and summer my creativity is sparked by travel, encountering new people, places, buildings, stories etc. A time when I squirrel away ideas to be unearthed in the depths of autumn and winter when I’m tucked up in my writing den. That’s not to say I don’t feel creative during darker days, I do. In lots of ways it’s easier to settle my bottom into my writing chair when there’s no lure of a sunny day tempting me outside. Autumn and winter are the times I get the actual writing done – word count up, achieving those writing goals. So I need all seasons, the fun and excitement of being out and about during spring and summer, followed by the discipline and hard graft in winter, working with the seeds I’ve gathered that will hopefully blossom again in spring.

Squirrelling away ideas

Jennifer Bohnet
     To be honest I struggle with being creative in every season.Winter's dark and grey days can bring a small 'black dog' that hangs around me for days, where doing anything let alone write is difficult. When the daffodils and primroses of Spring appear I definitely perk up only to fade away again when the heat of Summer arrives. This summer has addled my brain completely! I am so looking forward to Autumn 2019 - not that I'll be anymore creative as the nights draw in and we light the log burner. But writing gives me an income so whatever the season I have to get over myself and write, promote and do all the accompanying administration. My grandmother had a saying that I mutter to myself whenever the weather is affecting things:

'We'll weather the weather, whatever the weather, whether we like it or not'.

Jo Allen
     To every thing there is a season, says the Bible, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.

     But is there a season for writing? I’m going to answer that with a qualified no. I write whenever there’s a story needing to be told and that can be summer, autumn, winter or spring. It can be work time or holiday time. It can be day or night. But for me there is a fixed time to write and that’s November. I’m target-driven. I tick things off of lists and fill in apps for my step count and the like. Every November I sign up for a programme called National Novel writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and I sit down and produce the first draft of a novel. Other than that, no. No season at all!

Linda Mitchelmore

     As a short story writer with over 300 stories published worldwide under my belt I’m well used to writing in every season, and out of season. So, it’s almost always been, during my writing career, snow in summer, and bikinis in November ... well, in my mind, that is. I’d say my writing is weather-dependent and I write better when the sun isn’t shining, because when it is I just want to be out there in it. My house is small and my writing station is in the hall with a patio door behind me and a big window - facing south - to my left so sometimes heat dictates whether or not I write.

     I know people who use props to get in the mood .... wearing a summer frock and sandals to write in winter when writing a summer story, for example, but I don’t think I’d ever go that far! Writing all the above has made me realise how few Spring and Autumn stories there are .... Easter, of course, and some bonfire ones but neither of those seasons seem to sustain a novel to me.

     If I’ve got a deadline to meet then I just knuckle down to it – The Little B&B at Cove End was written mostly in winter, and Christmas at Strand House was written early morning and late evening in the summer to avoid too much heat at my writing station. There’s dedication for you!

Victoria

     So it appears that some writers are affected by the seasons and others are not. What about you?

Are you more creative in any particular season and why?