A recent Musician's Way blog entry says that a positive mood enhances creativity

http://musiciansway.com/blog/2013/02/inner-smile/

It cites this article
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101215113253.htm

The irony to me is capsulized by what a young amateur songwriter said to me: "I need my heart broken again so I can write another song." I tried to convince him that he didn't need to do that, but only got so far. I told him there was a second kind of love song, that kind that helps get you the girl. Then she breaks your heart, and go back to the first type . For beginner amateur songwriters writing songs with lyrics I'd guess about a five to one ratio of dark themes to upbeat themes, so what the young man said fits what I observe.

Many poets that I have met tend towards dark moods, as do more than a few songwriters. I observe that the isolation, the darkness, seems to correlate with the creativity. For some songwriters their best work has come from dark and difficult times in their lives.

One songwriter put it this way, if everything is going well and you are happy, you don't feel the urge to peel away and hide and write a song or an album. You are too busy enjoying the good times.

Anyway, forum composers weigh in. Has your best work come during difficult times in your life? If you have met other creative people, what about them? Same? Different?

I think creativity is an outlet to lifes problems...

I think creativity is a way to celebrate life

I have no idea because my works come to me in various stages of my life, from good to bad to awful to great... :-/

I pick up a paper and I read a story about a child that never made it to this world shortly before she should have arrived. I write 'innocent one'. Certain circumstances I find very moving but in general I just like the sound of sounds put together.

rada

I'm with Nikolas.

Plenty of happy people write sad pieces, and plenty of sad people don't write a thing.

If I'm depressed (doesn't happen too often, but it does happen) then I don't feel like writing anything. If I'm happy I'm enjoying the good times. I write when I'm motivated and feel I have something to contribute, much like my posting here.

For the newbie it may be that life experiences serve as inspiration and a way to purge oneself. I'd like to get to the place where my greatest inspiration comes from a commission. I guess that would have me feeling pretty positive so I agree with the article! ;-)

There exists no correlation that I can discern between my music and my mental or physical state at the time of creating it. There is sometimes retrospective correlation, "emotion recollected in tranquillity", but that is a different thing. This property is a double-edged sword. I am never stuck for a rapid flow of abstract ideas, but I find creating to a prescribed mood or even an association, very difficult. Any titles or programmes to any of my pieces or improvisations, almost without exception, are assigned retrospectively. Listening to the results I think, "Oh, that accurately depicts such and such ! I'll call it so and so !". But it is always completely unrelated to whatever state I was in at the time of its creation. Very many images might float about in my mind while creating a piece or improvisation, or while listening to it afterwards, but they are all usually mundane and silly, and would appear nonsense to anybody else if described.

I can't really speak much about musical composition, since that is not my strength. I dabble at it, but nothing short of trifling comes out. However, I can talk about just about any form of artistic creation that uses words.

I have found that my best work comes when I am working/creating. I have also found that my most creative ideas also come when I am working/creating. Creativity spawns more creativity, so the more you are working/creating, the more creative you will be and the easier the work will come.

There is a quote in Stephen King's novel, On Writing, which I will paraphrase. Basically, he said, "I do my best work when I'm working."