Crazy.

I'm not really sure what the relevance of this post is, but I read something lately that claimed that the majority of top-notch artists (whether it be poets, musicians, painters, or even authors) were (or are) rather crazy. I wasn't sure what to think at first, but then I started looking at exceptional artists in history (Sylvia Plath, Mozart, Van Gogh, and Edgar Allen Poe, to name a few). As many know, all of those aforementioned artists experienced some period(s) of insanity. I've been thinking quite a bit about this, so I'm going to give it an honorable mention on my blog. Excuse the irrelevancy of it to NaNoWriMo. (Although, I have been experiencing a bit of a dry spot as far as inspiration goes, so at least this is forcing me to write something; so, in a way, it's not really a waste of time.)

Long ago, when I was very little, I decided that what I think and what I write are in no way suitable topics for dinner conversation. Perhaps you've had something along the same lines happen to you before?

"What were you doing up there?

"Oh, I was just writing."

"About what?"

"I started a story about a girl having cancer. She dies at the end and it makes me kinda sad, 'cause I just started to like her. But she has to die anyway, of course."

(shaking head and walking away) "Not right. Strange cookie, you are. Straaange cookie."

It didn't take me long to figure out what I was and wasn't supposed to tell others. Perhaps this is why I haven't really spoken about my stories to other people--besides to my best friend, who is, coincidentally, nearly as mental as I am. But I haven't been talking to her quite as often either. And I've begun to notice that if I don't talk about things to people, I start talking to myself about them; and when that happens, the characters and plot lines begin to mix and haunt me in my dreams...and in reality.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, despite the fact that I'm not an "exceptional artist" or anything, I believe that I may be a little crazy. I think maybe all of us are, but writers, and other people who express themselves by means of creating things, have a special place in the figurative psychiatric clinic.