Writing and depression are no strangers to each other. The late American writer Ernest Hemingway who we all now know for his literary masterpieces, I suspect, also struggled hard to combat the depression in him. He saw many murdered during the World War I and also managed to survive after a couple of airplane crash incidents, as long as my memory serves. He then indulged himself in liquor a lot and took his own life at last.
Such a depressive mindset almost ruined Joanne Rowling’s entire life as well in her early 30’s. A broken marriage, being a single mother and financial downturn dragged our dear author J. K. Rowling to another chapter of life – the stardom she ‘instantly’ built after Harry Potter series – which saved herself and Jessica, her baby. In one TV interview, I recall her stating that writing is what kept her alive and moving forward. She was lucky indeed to have a happy family, something she always longed for since the bitter childhood.
Another novelist – a fictitious one I saw on a K-drama – admitted how writing had saved him from the darkest past memory. His marriage was so close to ideal. He loved his wife so much and vice versa. Then an accident struck without warning. She was at last dead, leaving him forlorn and so desperate he wanted to take his own life. He simply got depressed, shunning social life and so forth. Psychologically and mentally dying the man was. Wanting some improvement in his life, a close friend introduced him to writing world. He managed to gain huge success by writing thriller novels, dubbed the Stephen King of Korea, perhaps. And his good looks worked so well to build even more staunch female fan base.
An old adage says:”An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Now I invent my own adage, saying:”A composition a day keeps depression away.”
Maybe if only Robin Williams liked writing even more, everything would be more bearable to him. But that is just maybe…
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