True art is a reflection of the artist at a particular epoch in their life.
Some argue that the artist should be invisible. Whether this is true or not, instilling your art with the era you’re living doesn’t have to draw attention to the artifice.
No matter what you’re writing, you have to bring what you’re living to the work.
You’re writing historical fiction about Nazi-occupied Poland, but you just broke up with your girlfriend. That book is about your break-up. Whether your characters fall in and out of love or not is immaterial.
You’re writing a comic book that turns conventional superhero tropes on their head, but your father just passed away. That book is about grief, loss, and family. Whether the plot is about that or not doesn’t matter.
You’re writing a paranormal romance about witches and vampires, but your day-to-day life is filled with political angst and strife. That book is about tribes. It’s about politics. It’s about division. Whether those things actually occur in the book or not, that’s what it’s about.
This is how you defeat writer’s block.
This is how you be prolific.
This is how you craft a legacy.
This is how you create an artistic signature.
Don’t use your physical or emotional pain as an excuse not to write. Use it and infuse it in your writing.
When you write this way, each book you write is a stamp in the literary passport of your life.
You can look back over the years and each book’s a calling-card to another era.
Ah, you say, this is when I was struggling with that problem. Or this book is coloured with the emotions of my twenties. Or, damn, this book couldn’t have been written by me at any other time in my life.
Just like how other people in your dreams are archetypes representing yourself, the characters in your stories are psychic manifestations of your deepest dreams, fears, and desires at one specific time in your life.
Every book’s an epoch.
So write your current era.