Craft of Writing: Cathartic Process.

Dear Reader,

Writing has many uses. It ranges from the humble grocery shopping list to the greatest of written prose and poetry. Journal writing is usually a rather private process. Or it was until blogs came on the scene. Now, there are many who keep an online diary that has privacy settings filtered to specific groups of people and those who are more public about their writings, like this blog you are reading right now.

Journal writing is often the creative workhorse for me. It is where I suss out the details of scenes that have me stumped. It is where I test plot ideas and devise characters. (Fish Eye, a minor character in book two that proves surprisingly useful as a plot device came out of a written character sketch based off of a picture I saw in the wilds of the internet. Alas, I have been unable to find that picture since, or I would have posted it here with credit to whomever it was in it and had taken it.) I also use journal writing to handle the work I do on my mental health issues.

I write horror. It is graphic and uncomfortable. It is more than challenging to write because scenes often require me to look into my own traumas and emotional baggage. Journal writing is harder than fictionalizing my experiences. When I turn my trauma into fiction, I can separate myself from it and write some truly ugly things with out much upset. It is when I am sitting down with pen and paper to write about what really happened and how I am coping with it however many years later that it gets painful.

No one likes to reopen old wounds. For me, however, it is necessary to revisit those old wounds on a semi-regular basis. Partly, this is because there is still a lot of things that are unresolved for me. Mostly, this is because I am working to transform the tragedies of my life into something beautiful. Thus, writing a truly horrific scene helps me take my personal horrors and turn them into an amazing story that will move you, my Reader, in some fashion. 

I had an instructor at college tell me that I shouldn't worry too much about grammar and syntax when I was writing out rough drafts. He told me to especially not worry about such things when writing in my journal. My focus when writing in my journal should be the topic I am writing about and complete honesty in my work. Honesty shows up in many different fashions. It is why there are so many different forms of writing. But that focus on topic and honesty can lead to a great deal of healing if you're struggling with something painful. The journal acts as a mirror where by you may see yourself truly and, over time, watch yourself grow in to the person you desire to be.

♥