Do you write how you feel?

Do you spend a lot of time writing? It doesn't have to be books, poetry or anything "creative", but could be research reports, job applications or letters. Did you know that your choice of words directly reflects your state of mind?
 
Believe it or not, it does.
 
If you keep a journal a good way of testing my theory is to go and read a few of the pages. In the first few sentences of each day's entries you will find evidence of your state of mind on a current day.
 
Full of pain, then your writing style will be "angry" - I scrawl anger and suffering, you might write in a controlled cramped style. I write in a much more fluid, lucid way when I am in a good mood.
 
But there is a much easier way to test this "theory". If you need to write something, I can guarantee you can start the project and finish faster if you:
like the topic
feel confident of your subject matter (ie., you know what you want to say)
and feel good about who you are and where you are in your life.
 
But today we are going to be doing something quite interesting (well I think so at any rate). Today I'd like you to do as well as read.  For today's exercise you will need a piece of paper and a writing instrument of choice...or you can use the 'puter - it's up to you.
 
Now I am going to give you three words - one of those three words you will use at the beginning of the sentence. The remaining two words have to appear in the first paragraph - somewhere. Now you can add endings to the word - plurals, "ing" etc
 
Car
Pain
Child
 
Now all I want you to do is write for 5 minutes and then stop.
 
Once you have done that I want you to stop - and re-read what you have written... surprised at the choice of words that you used?
 
Now, just humour me for a minute and do the writing exercise again, this time use
 
Dance
Time
Laughter
 
again you can change the endings to make the first word you choose easier to use....
 
When you are faced with a writing project that just won't get going, remember the technique, you will be surprised at how fast and how much you can write using the three word suggestion. Work out what your topic is really about and write a number of keywords that you need to convey in that paragraph and away you should go.