100 Day Creative Challenge Day 45 Write What You Feel

When we put the pen to paper, we articulate things in our life that we may have felt vague about. Before you write about something, somebody says, ‘How do you feel?’ and you say, ‘Oh, I feel okay.’ Then you write about it, and you discover you don’t feel okay. Julia Cameron

Many therapists recommend writing about feelings as a way to both exorcise and understand them.I used to journal a lot, now I blog, write fiction and pen articles. When I write how I feel about things emotions come out. Sometimes, like right this second as I write, I have a quote that caught my attention because it expressed something I’m feeling and what I write flows out of that.

I often don’t know how I really feel about something until I write about it. I’m about 40 000 words into a novel about a marriage that is dissolving into bitterness and anger and hurt that have been buried so long the main character’s heart has fossilised into stone. Now is my marriage dissolving and am I filled with bitterness? No, but I have experienced those emotions at times.

I have allowed anger to harden my heart and felt that I could cheerfully walk away from a long-term relationship. However, I have a husband who works with me as I battle these emotions. He also battles with his emotions and we work through those.

When I write I tap into emotions I’ve experienced, even though I may not have experienced those exact situations faced by my characters.

In this example from my work-in-progress, Laura arrives at her wedding filled with doubts and this is how she expresses feelings:

This was one of those point of no return moments. The moment where the story could go Runaway Bride or Princess Bride. Or this could be where I put all the dark fears behind me and climb up the path and onto the sun-filled, friend and family-filled terrace and shoot for the fairytale. It could be the moment where the magic happens. Elaine Fraser, The Solo Traveller

We’ve all had doubt. We’ve all had those moments of decision.

Humanity shares the most basic of emotions and as a writer I tap into what I know.

I’ve read several manuscripts the last couple of years and have read about anorexia, miscarriage, broken relationships, abuse, adventures, spiritual crises and myriad other experiences that authors are attempting to make sense of through their writing. The reader of these works will connect with not only the shared experiences, but the emotions.

So, if you’re writing, write from what you feel. If people read your work and feel sadness, vulnerability, courage, fear, bitterness and all the spectrum of emotions, they will love your work. Just telling the events won’t touch others. If your work brings a tear to your eye or causes you to chuckle, a reader will engage with it.

Writing from what you feel is cathartic and helps you, but it can also help others.

100 Day Creative Challenge Day 45 Write What You Feel