Are we all screwed up in some ways?

[I Am]

"Writers are a bunch of screwed up and heartbroken people. Creativity is pain entwined with beautifully written text."

do you agree? i do, sometimes. but then again, who isn't or has never been heartbroken? or who has never really felt pain? I think it just depends on what outlet you use to express and let it go.

what do you think?

[rogerSIMIAN]

I don't think I'm screwed up, but I have been heart-broken. To be a writer you just need to have fully experienced life, I think: the good and the bad.

[I Am]

i guess it also depends on how we each define being a "screw-up"...

rogerSIMIAN said:

I don't think I'm screwed up, but I have been heart-broken. To be a writer you just need to have fully experienced life, I think: the good and the bad.

[rogerSIMIAN]

Yup, totally. How would you define it?

Being a "screw up" sounds to me very negative and kind of stuck in one place, if you know what I mean, whereas I think there's a good, creative forward momentum in thinking of yourself as having come from a fairly dark place but moving towards the light and the colour.

I think the best art mixes up the pleasures and tragedies of life fairly evenly. In order to write/sing/paint or film the beauty of pain you need to experience both pain and beauty, not get too stuck on one or the other. Easier said than done, of course. Heehee - I think this current frame of mind has come from me cutting up the pages of a teeny book about Zen so's I can glue bits of it into the microzine I'm currently sticking and pasting together. :-)

[Madrea Marie]

Yeah...everyone has felt pain. Some people can use this pain to be more creative. Some people can be creative without pain. As far as being screwed up, it depends if the person wants to view themselves like that. I'd had a lot of screwed up things happen in my life, some real fucked up shit, but I don't want to define myself by all that. There was a time when getting together with my husband I said to him" Why do you want me? I'm such a mess" and I really was, emotionally. But he didn't see me that way, and neither do I anymore. But I can use reflections of the past to help me write/draw now.

[KellyRose-Pulse Zine]

i really like what you said about the best art mixing the pleasures and tragedies of life. i agree that to appreciate beauty you have to be able to appreciate pain. and yes i completely agree with what is the definition of "screwed up".. everyone has problems and at least writers/zinesters are able to write about their stuff and get it out in some way...not everyone has such a great outlet/coping skill.

rogerSIMIAN said:

Yup, totally. How would you define it?

Being a "screw up" sounds to me very negative and kind of stuck in one place, if you know what I mean, whereas I think there's a good, creative forward momentum in thinking of yourself as having come from a fairly dark place but moving towards the light and the colour.

I think the best art mixes up the pleasures and tragedies of life fairly evenly. In order to write/sing/paint or film the beauty of pain you need to experience both pain and beauty, not get too stuck on one or the other. Easier said than done, of course. Heehee - I think this current frame of mind has come from me cutting up the pages of a teeny book about Zen so's I can glue bits of it into the microzine I'm currently sticking and pasting together. :-)

[Chantel G.]

I know that when I have been at my worst, depressed, drunk, messed up, I was creating NOTHING. When I can't get out of bed to do anything but go to work, I don't have much creative process going on.

Lately, I have been in a creative frenzy. I feel like i'm less screwed up than I used to be, but on some level, I am using my creativity to distract me from all the stress in my life.

So maybe the trick is balancing opposing forces...It all comes back to balance, I think, although I don't always feel like my life is in balance. I think it's a continuous struggle.

[W. Alan Fare]

But when you're in that mode you have a spirit to write some great material! I've read your latest zine a few times over, and it got my juices flowing again! Having the ideas is easy for me, but getting them done just seems a struggle these days.

Getting older doesn't help either, but knowing I'm not alone makes me want to keep doing what I love! When I was 20 I thought I'd move out of zinedom by 25. At 30 I thought I'd get over it at 35. I'm 41 now and just starting a new zine that will most likely not be my last!

I've been doing zines for over half my life, so why stop now? As long as I have something to say I'll say it in fanzine form. If I have more than one reader (meaning two) I'll continue to publish. Maybe someone will read what I print years down the road and find something of use... Better to leave my mark by something I printed and assembled myself than some blurb on the internet!

Chantel G. said:

I know that when I have been at my worst, depressed, drunk, messed up, I was creating NOTHING. When I can't get out of bed to do anything but go to work, I don't have much creative process going on.

Lately, I have been in a creative frenzy. I feel like i'm less screwed up than I used to be, but on some level, I am using my creativity to distract me from all the stress in my life.

So maybe the trick is balancing opposing forces...It all comes back to balance, I think, although I don't always feel like my life is in balance. I think it's a continuous struggle.

[betrayedzine]

when i was crazy i used to write a lot more.

[kami]

i dont think you can be creative without having a little 'pain' in yr life... or at least it isnt good without that kickstart.

[Josh Kramer]

I dont believe it takes pain to be a writer.
I mean I can't really be like 'im a writer and ive never been hurt" because that isnt true.
but the things I write about do not reflect that pain that ive dealt with.
I think it is more about what you are writing about.
But I think if you are writing something in which you are trying to put feelings out in text you need to know feelings, how they work, what triggers them and so on.
But I think as long as people have thoughts that is all that is needed to be a writer..you dont have to have something wrong with you

[I Am]

i get your point... i mean if you have felt all pain and not much of other emotions, then how can you effectively refletct/write about those emotions? but then again, being humans, negatives always outweigh the lighter emotions... of you get what im trying to say.

Josh Kramer said:

I dont believe it takes pain to be a writer.
I mean I can't really be like 'im a writer and ive never been hurt" because that isnt true.
but the things I write about do not reflect that pain that ive dealt with.
I think it is more about what you are writing about.
But I think if you are writing something in which you are trying to put feelings out in text you need to know feelings, how they work, what triggers them and so on.
But I think as long as people have thoughts that is all that is needed to be a writer..you dont have to have something wrong with you

[Spanishzinestress78]

I have always thought of writers as people who are passionately in love with life and so aware of even the smallest details of what it entails (love, lust, pain etc) that they (or better said, we) need to ´´pour´´ our feelings and experiences onto paper to release that intensity. Ehm... did it make any sense? I am losing my touch with the English language, I would be able to express that more coherently in Spanish (my mother tongue) I promise :)
So heartbroken? yes (who hasn´t anyway? Life is packed full of heartbreaking moments) . Screwed up? not necessarily at all. In fact quite the opposite IMHO.
We are the lucky ones :) at least that´s how I often feel being part of this global zine community.