The Pyrenees---Southern France

The Pyrenees---Southern France

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Anger as Fuel

Bottle It Up
photo by amazon.com
                                                      

       Sara Bareilles has had her 2nd hit which started with anger.

    The first song I heard of hers was "Love Song." Apparently her record company was clamoring for a love song and she refused. They kept prodding. She dug in her heels.

     But then she wrote a song about  her refusal to write a love song for them...and it was a hit on the radio waves.

     Now she has out "King of Anything." It has lines in it like, "Who made you the king of anything?" and "Hey, let me put a crown on you, baby" in a very tongue-in-cheek way.

     I am sure she had other things all over the airwaves before "Love Song" and between it and "King of Anything." However, my antennae was tuned in on those two.

     And I go back to when I was a teenager. Full of angst, poetry flowed out with little effort. It was as if my crazy anger fueled my writing. Thankfully Unfortunately, those poems were lost over the many years and the many moves.

     And I remember my favorite character from the no-longer-on television show "Designing Women"---the "Julia" character played by Dixie Carter. She would get mad, would go on automatic pilot and rant; the words would spew out like Mount Vesuvius.

      How does anger impact your writing?  When you are mad, does it help or hurt your writing process?

6 comments:

  1. Great post, Sioux. I'll have to listen to Sara's songs. As far as anger effecting my writing...hmmm...I'm sitting here thinking this should be a really good question for me, since I'm writing a memoir...but I honestly have to say...I haven't dealt with anger in my writing...for years. Way too long of a story...Sometime when we meet for lunch or tea again!

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  2. I would say that anger helps my writing, because I'm always complaining about something. Nothing major, just everyday things that get under my skin. I try to find the humor in those situations so I can let the bee out of my bonnet and move on.

    My favorite Julia Sugarbaker rant begins with, "I'd like to thank you, Ray Don..."

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  3. When I write angry, I write lousy.

    I still want to be Julia Sugarbaker when I grow up!

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  4. Sioux, I just had to drop by and say that you have done so many wonderful things with your blog. You have grown and flourished so much, and I am happy for all of your accomplishments. You are an inspiration!

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  5. Underground Teacher is a tough commenter to follow. What she said. :)

    I don't write much poetry these days. As a teen I wrote ooh-gobs of poetry, as I spent most days drowning in angst. Wouldn't go back, but I do wish I had the open creative spigot that I owned back then. Nowadays it is more about trying to squeeze in my writing--any writing--amidst all of my responsibilities. I don't get angry so much as tired and just plain worn out.

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  6. I do some of my best writing (of poetry) when I am angry.

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