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Maxi321
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03 Feb 2009, 2:45 pm

Since I was a young child I've been an avid writer. It was an obsession, that though dominated the majority of my time, was not as odd as being obsessed with animals-my other obsession at that moment in time. Recently though, in the last year or so, my passion for it has actually just disappeared. It feels as if something very physical has happened to me and i can know longer see the miniscule details of this world and put them onto paper.

Now I sit down and force myself to write because without it (my writing) I don't feel I have an identity. And everything I produce is just unbelievably rubbish, because its a result of forced creativity. And so I'm depressed; I'm depressed by the fact that I've lost the ability to preform with perfection the one thing which I feel defined me as a person.

Before this happened I couldn't imagin living life without an obsession and I honestly never believed I'd ever have to, but now my worst fears become reality and I'm listless and I don't know what to do. Has anyone eles ever experienced this or something similar? :cry:



garyww
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03 Feb 2009, 2:50 pm

Thats very common. How old are you? It usually occurs when you are going thru a big change in your life like puberty, moving, loss of a parent or sibling, etc., etc.
I used to be an extremely talented artists and then poof it just vanished when I was about 20 years old. It wasn't that the interest vanished, it was that the skills literally disappeared.


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zghost
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03 Feb 2009, 3:15 pm

Yes, I quit writing for about 10 years. Then I found fan fics, and got back into it. Got any books, movies, TV shows you like? You can write about them. http://www.fanfiction.net/ for example, but there's lots of sites out there.
It solves the "what to write about" issue.



AspE
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03 Feb 2009, 3:32 pm

garyww wrote:
Thats very common. How old are you? It usually occurs when you are going thru a big change in your life like puberty, moving, loss of a parent or sibling, etc., etc.
I used to be an extremely talented artists and then poof it just vanished when I was about 20 years old. It wasn't that the interest vanished, it was that the skills literally disappeared.


That's interesting, for me the talent is there but the interest isn't.



Maxi321
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03 Feb 2009, 3:37 pm

I'm 19 and yeah It did happen just before I moved to university, if thats a big enough change.



garyww
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03 Feb 2009, 3:46 pm

I think in that case once you get a routine established that it will come back again. I've heard that when this happens and the thing does come back, if it does, it will be far more developed that before.


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03 Feb 2009, 3:53 pm

I was an overnight artist. I woke up one morning and my art skills had tripled. Then they didn't develope any further.



Fluffybunnyfeet
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03 Feb 2009, 6:13 pm

This does sound like depression at the heart of it. You need new life experiences to write new material, and you need a fresh mind (ie not depression) to be critically constructive.

It doesn't sound like writer's block, where there is a strong desire to write, but no ideas come.

Other causes : relationships. Forming a strong relationship with someone tends to knock imagination and creativity back a long way. Blame evolution.

You may just have exhausted your special interest... if thats the case then you'll have a new special interest very soon... something to look forward to there :)

I write this as a some-time writer in my early years, my own special interest (not writing) has only faded during times of acute depression.