Writing means revealing oneself to excess. Franz Kafka
In a recent interview with the Jerusalem Post, Professor Sherwin Nuland, who worked as a surgeon at Yale University's New Haven Hospital for 40 years before starting to write nonfiction medical books, says that writing helped him overcome a breakdown and had a lasting therapeutic effect.
It forced him to more honest with himself because it required him to be honest with others. "Until I had my breakdown, I played the part of an assimilated American Jew who had everything sorted out," he says. "It was very burdensome to carry it alone. My writing has relieved me of it."
Graham Greene, a British novelist, journalist and playwright, also claimed that writing is a form of therapy.
"Sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent in a human situation," Greene wrote.
And although very few people aspire to make a living with their writing, writing as a form of therapy has become more and more prevalent in recent years.
The act of writing requires deep and honest communication with the inner self, and getting in touch with that voice is often a liberating and enlightening experience.
For many people, the most daunting part of writing is not actually putting pen to paper, but the thought of doing so. Just like learning to ski or drive or car, the first thing you have to do is pick up a pen and begin. And the more you practice, the better you will get.
Many people who have never strung a sentence together, other than to compare two novels or draw up a business proposal, are surprised by both how easy it is to write and the results it yields.
Therapists who use writing workshops with great success say that the act of writing often brings up unexpected emotions, and by expressing them, people feel a sense of relief.
So what do you write about and how do you begin?
Well, there are many recommendations, but one of the best methods I know (and one that works extremely well for me) is simply recounting the emotions of the day in a personal diary or journal. I don't mean making a list of what you did at what time. The fact that you drank your coffee at 7:30 is probably not interesting. Writing down the significant moments in a day at the end of one can be difficult if you think nothing unusual happened, so before you begin to write, take a moment to meditate on the day.
Think about who you saw, where you went, what was said to whom and for what purpose. According to Raymond Carver, there are significant moments in everyone's day that can make literature, but when you reflect, try and focus on what meant the most to you, not composing the next Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.
Some days will have obvious, momentous things to discuss, but on the days when nothing jumps out, take the opportunity to look at how you felt during the day, no matter what it may entail, and then think about why you felt that way.
One of the things psychologists often ask patients to do is ask themselves ‘why?' For a writer, the process is similar. For example, what made me angry about that conversation I had with my sister? Why did I get upset after speaking with my boss?
Don't be embarrassed about any of your feelings. Just let them flow into your writing, and don't worry about style, punctuation or grammar. This is not a high school English composition. It is for you alone, and the more honest you can be with yourself and with your experiences, the more the process of meditation followed by writing will help.
Set aside a time each day to write when you feel mentally alert and rested. Then find a quiet place where you can sit comfortably without being disrupted. That may not be at home. If you share a space with a big family and there is never a single moment without bedlam, you may want to consider going outside to a park bench or a nearby café.
If simply trying to write about the day or life experiences keeps drawing major blanks, try writing exercises. There are numerous writing websites with thematic ideas that can help you find topics and subject matter to explore. In her book, Writing Out the Storm, Jessica Page Morrell recommends a few five-minute exercises to write about in your journal that I have slightly expanded:
1. Write a list of the pains and pleasures of the past week or month and then pick the most emotional one to expound upon.
2. Write about a childhood experience with serious illness or death.
3. Write about a moment of anger in the past month - what caused it, what did you do, and how did your body feel?
4. Write about a moment of gratitude.
5. Picture a big pink bubble, and place everybody negative in your life, everything that's no longer working for you inside this bubble.
And then blow it away. Write about who and what you put in your bubble. This idea comes from My One Night Stand With Cancer by Tania Katan. "It's a little woo-woo," she writes, "but I think it's perfect for the occasion." (Anne Lamott has a wonderful version of this in Bird by Bird - turning those toxic people into mice and dropping them by their tails into a large jar.)
Here are a few more suggestions of my own:
1. Write about a turning point in your life—a time when something changed in a major way and why that happened. It could be a negative or a positive experience.
2. Write about a goal you have for the future and how you see yourself achieving it.
For more ideas about creative writing as therapy, check out Writing Works by Gillie Bolton, Victoria Field and Kate Thompson.
The most important thing to remember is that practice will make it easier. Don't give up if it's difficult or painful. The relief and liberating self-expression are worth the time, solitude and patience that writing requires.