The Benefits of Writing

 

I’d like to put in a plug for writing.  It has been a lifesaver for me through some pretty dark times, especially in the past few years of this pandemic.  It’s been a way to connect with others in a world where isolation can be crushing.  In the past decade it has even been a dialogue through time and space between me and my younger self who exists only in memories but influences so much of what I say and do in the here and now.

Maybe the form of writing at hand is a poem because they are short and “easy”.  I didn’t say “good”, just easy in the sense they can be written down quickly and concisely.  I leave iambic pentameter and the outpouring of cantos to other more skilled practitioners.  And rhyming is fun, but I do not use it very often.  I mostly settle for micro-bits of emotion and glimmers of insight that pop out from time to time, like when heat transforms a kernel of corn into popcorn.  If I can capture these burst kernels on paper the benefits are more filling and longer lasting. 

Memories of younger years generate a fair amount of what I’ve written, but the other major source is photographs I’ve taken.  I highly recommend this strategy for generating words because for me it has inspired the lion’s share of what I have written in the past decade and been a well of ideas to draw from.  It is typically something peculiar that catches my eye and suggests a story of some kind, like a Rorschach test. 

I’ve also benefited from books that give advice and/or ideas for writing prompts.  These include “Writing Down the Bones” by Natalie Goldberg, “On Writing” by Stephen King, and “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron among others.  I used these mostly in my early to mid-40’s when I was trying to get started writing before transitioning to using childhood memories and photographs as the major sources for inspiration and writing ideas.  And speaking of childhood, my kids have done their fair share of heavy lifting in regards to being my muses.

Most of the writing advice I’ve come across emphasizes the importance of reading and reading a lot.  This is especially true of Stephen King who follows his own advice and has written book reviews for books that I’ve ended up reading due to his enthusiasms.  I have to say I don’t read a lot nowadays but when I was a kid I read all the time to escape the mundaneness of small town life.  I had a penchant for Fantasy with Science Fiction as a close second (and then Roger Zelazny blew my mind by mixing the two).

Most recently I’ve gotten on a Kurt Vonnegut kick and I’m watching the documentary “Unstuck in Time” on Hulu.  I’m also reading “PITY THE READER - on writing with style” by Suzanne McConnell who uses KV as her touchstone for writing and writing advice.  I’ve learned a lot from his brevity of style that he attributes to his early writing years when he was doing a lot of journalistic work which requires one to get to the point quickly and distill things down to their essence as much as possible.  His literary journal “So It Goes” has become a home for some of my poems and photographs and something I look forward to submitting to every year.

All that to say, whatever your motivation or life experiences, writing may very well be the “easiest” and most accessible way of engaging in a therapeutic process.  I highly recommend it.

***