 For Authors: November 29, 2017 Issue [#8621] |
  For Authors
This week: Writer, Feel Lighter! Edited by: THANKFUL SONALI Library Class!  
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"Write it down, it'll help you deal with it."
Well, yes, it does.
Sharing a few of my personal experience with this. |
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Dear Reader,
I joined WDC soon after my mother passed away. I'd written a poem about my grief and wanted someone to share it with. Someone aside from family and friends, that is, because they might think I was addressing them directly. It was about how I wanted to cope with my grief in my own way, and didn't want anyone telling me how I should behave. WDC was the one place I could upload my poem, just like that.
I got instant reviews, and ... more than just reviews of writing ... acknowledgement of what I was going through. It comforted me, knowing I wasn't alone in the way I was handling my grief.
Since then, I have written often to cope with something that has happened to me. Once, something a friend said really hurt me. We were talking about 'the other woman' and she made a remark that I could never be 'the other woman' because I was too trustworthy. It was a compliment up until then, but she went on to imply that I wasn't attractive enough for a man to fall for.
What did I do?
I entered the Official WDC Contest that month, spilling out my hurt, plotting my revenge, purely in my head and on my screen. Lo and behold, it won me first place in that round -- a much coveted prize! My friend and I are as close as ever, she has no idea that she hurt me then, and I have put it behind me.
So -- why is writing cathartic?
I'm no expert, but I can try and put down my personal thoughts on this.
1. Writing forces you to clarify those half-whispers in your mind ... to capture them and put them in words. When they're trapped like that, ink on paper or font on screen, chances are they stop buzzing around.
For me, it's an added bonus to be entering something as highly competitive, as the WDC Official contest with my outpourings, because I have to make sure that I have crafted them well. This honing of sentences, this search for the perfect word, this need to ensure that the audience gets what I am saying helps me further in my search of peace. It becomes about the craft of writing, and the turmoil is somewhat soothed.
2. Writing helps you see other points of view. When you write, even if you're the protagonist, you have to get under the skin of the antagonist sometimes, too. This helps you balance the point of view.
3. Writing helps you share.
Putting that poem or that story in my WDC portfolio helped me reach out to others. And that's important. We're social animals, we need each other. We need to know someone is empathising, someone is lending us a comforting shoulder or a listening ear. Writing helps do that. And, since it's a sort of delayed-sharing, you can do it without interruption (unlike a face-to-face or telephonic conversation, which is more intimate and more immediate, but can also be interrupted before you have finished forming your own thought).
When I (purely hypothetically) plotted my revenge on my friend for doubting my womanly appeal, I also clarified to myself and my audience that I would never, ever actually take any steps to take that revenge. I didn't want to, I didn't need to. I just wanted to acknowledge that I had felt hurt. The fact that those who reviewed the piece recognised this in 'the character' was deeply fulfilling.
As I said, this is very personal to me. Your reasons for finding comfort in writing might be the exact opposite of what mine are, and be perfect for your needs. As long as you find comfort in writing, that's what matters.
So ...
Write On!
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Thank you for the responses to "Putting the words in context"
Azrael Tseng 
I really enjoyed reading about the motivations behind other writers for their writing and translating work.
Monty 
I seldom comment on this News Letter but I always read them. Somewhere between the beginning and the end I usually learn something.
hbk16
A poem is a package of contemporary feelings emanating straightly from the heart.Sincerity,truth and live sensitivity render the poem touching.The use of certain heavy words is very important at the same level as the choose of the expressions which make the poetic piece a direct translator of someone deep feelings. I have appreciated a lot such issue.
Received on FACEBOOK, with the question: What does writing do?
Elianda Lee Writing is really, talking and listening to your SOUL... and that is very creative...
TheRightMargin To become immortal through our words...or just for therapy
Timi Medeiros Writing opens the eyes of the reader.
Kate Worthen Writing is what God put some of us on this Earth to do and it's a good form of expression
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