Interesting question. Perhaps you’re not yet ready to confront the past in order to reflect and share with the reader in a way that resonates. Or, perhaps that pain is exactly what infuses the writing. What I’m talking about is the sort of must-suffer emotionally that some have embraced which means you cannot be happy and be a writer. Not at all the same as mental illness. Sort of the “only as happy as the least happy child” syndrome, which is the very essence of co-dependency. One must be able to at least maintain arm’s distance to distill and understand in a way that makes it meaningful to the reader. Just one opinion.

So what about writing a painful memoir? I’m doing that now. I must relive my old hurts and feel them to be able to convey how I was feeling at the time.

Unlike anyone who has commented so far, I do have bipolar disorder.
I have a University of California B.A. literature degree,a freelance writing career of almost 20 years, a book deal, a wonderful marriage of 17 years, two beautiful little girls and many other blessings.

I was put off by the title “Do You Have to Suffer to Write”. Those of us writers who live with severe mental illness did not choose to suffer. I wouldn’t wish bipolar disorder on my worst enemy. I don’t feel that it’s necessary to have bipolar in order to create brilliant work. Moreover, I believe that bipolar disorder is often sugarcoated and glamorized by society when it comes to creativity.

If you read Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison’s classic “Touched With Fire” about manic depression and creativity, or Dr. Alice W. Flaherty’s book “The Midnight Disease” anout creativity, writing and writer’s block, you’ll read about a variety of superstar mentally ill writers. Yes, they’ve created works of a caliber that most of us dream of composing, but I’d rather be stable than trade places with any of them.

You wrote “stable lives may be better for writing, permitting a blank slate of sorts…” While that sounds totally sensible, it’s not always the case. I crafted two lengthy book proposals with sample chapters that landed book deals with two separate, established publishers while unstable.

Those are my only book deals to date, and I’m stable and productive now. I reiterate that I’d rather be stable than sick, but I bring this all up to illustrate that in my case a stable life wasn’t better for my writing quality or writing career. Bipolar disorder is not a cookie cutter brain disease.

Of course one doesn’t have to suffer in order to write her finest work. Thank God. But please remember that some of your readers don’t always fit the mold that’s portrayed by a society that continues to stigmatize mental illness.

Many thanks. Good luck with your writing.

Sorry for late response, thanks for smart comment. Oh so true.

Great quote, oh so true, for some of us, thank you.