I have my hostess, Katie Rendon, to thank for a personally enlightening time…
Yesterday I was invited to speak on writing as therapy at a Bridgeway Center support group and I think I probably had more AhHa! moments than my audience.
I always knew I used writing as therapy—most of us do. What I never connected was how much I connect with myself, and how much of myself, is in my writing.
As I was citing specific therapeutic examples in my work, many of them were surfacing and connecting for the first time in my mind. It felt like having the light turned on for the first time in a room I was well familiar with.
I’ll be elaborating more in the coming days, but here are a few specific examples for now;
- The circle of light Mae finds herself trapped in in End of Mae came from a dream I had where I first learned how to forgive my past and move on.
- I thought Heylel and Mae were going to end up together, but in the yet-to-be-released end of the book, there’s a few surprises—especially to me. I didn’t realize, while writing the book, I was writing about my marriage.
- Joon and Mae are both me at different points in my life. Joon was never meant to stick around, I originally had her out of the story as soon as her part was played. Objections from beta readers kept her alive and I made peace with her existence and gave her a role. Knowing how the whole story ends, that act becomes significant to me personally and gives me goosebumps.
I don’t have time at the moment to explain more. The past few days have been wonderfully, chaotically busy… but I will be digging deeper into the idea of writing as therapy more in the very near future.
Thank you to Katie Rendon for asking me to speak—I enjoyed it and personally discovered a lot about my writing I didn’t know. Beneficial to all I hope, and I appreciated the opportunity.
