Writing When Low

I’m writing this and feeling negatively. I notice most times that I consider writing while not feeling great I retreat rather quickly, but I think that’s a disservice to myself. How many of the best stories, songs, paintings, and poems were created from negative emotion? Thinking about it right now, I wonder if it’s the majority.

At some point in the future I’d like to finish The Hero’s Journey by Joseph Campbell, but it’s incredibly dry and stuffed with vocabulary too far over my head. I only purchased it so I could learn and use the material. From what I understand (from reading one chapter and then doing a lot of googling), the book outlines a 12-step framework for how stories and myths pertaining to gods and heroes traverse between major common milestones.

The hero begins their normal life and refuses a call to adventure until a mentor of some sort inspires the pursuit. The hero then enters the unfamiliar world and learns how it works from friends, foes, and challenges. Tensions rise as they move toward a major crisis that results in a major loss or symbolic death. They’re rewarded for surviving the ordeal, and they take the reward with them to face the final conflict, during which they must demonstrate that they’ve changed. Upon resolution, they bring back something to benefit others and/or the world.

I must admit, positivity doesn’t make much of an appearance until the end of the hero’s journey, and many wise people have said that journeys are superior to destinations… I’d like to write more when feeling like this.