Quotation (with page number or paragraph number or time stamp if video/audio)

“I’ve written five books. Four of these books are extraordinarily depressing.”

(Lessig, 1)

Comment (250-500 words)

I Thought this opening sentence was very grabbing because it relates to me personally. I’ve always wanted to write a book. The thought of transcribing stories that I think about onto a page is something I think about a lot. Most of the novels I think about writing are wild fantasy or gritty sci-fi, but the first time I wrote a story, it was extremely depressing. I used a website called Wattpad to just get my writing urge out, and I began writing a story about a town of children getting superpowers. Seems tame enough, but I wanted to add my own twist. Every kid dreams of getting superpowers, so I wanted to explore how it would be if getting these powers were a bad thing. I don’t remember much but I do remember that when the main character got his powers, which were electricity, he ended up electrocuting one of his friends by accident. It wasn’t a happy chapter, but I remember it because I was proud of the emotion it brought out. I like that the author mentions that he likes depressing stories, because many times the best emotion is conveyed through depressing stories.

Question

Do you think that writing depressing stories can make an author depressed, or can overly happy stories have the same effect?