Writing is Therapeutic
I completed the NaNoWriMo challenge! I did it!
My story is a loooonnnggggg way from finished, but I ended the month with over 58,000 words written. Of course I am pleased with myself for having achieved that much...now I need to finish the book. I love to meet a challenge, complete my goal and all that good stuff, but that isn't what is so therapeutic about writing fiction.
I wrote an earlier post that compared writing (for me) to playing Barbies when I was a child. I had my characters and just played at what their storyline was. Fiction writing truly is a lot like that. The fun part comes in when you get to create conflict and then resolve it. In fiction writing, you can create a character you don't like, and then deal with them however you want to. If you want to have your antagonist eaten by a grizzly bear, you can do that. If you always wanted to live on an island in the South Pacific, you can write yourself there. You can be a race car driver or a turtle farmer, and anything in between. If you are lonely, you can write a love life. If you are happy, you can recreate that again for a reader. It doesn't matter if the conflict is between people, or within a person chasing their own dreams, or maybe with nature. You are the one in charge of everyone's destiny and you can solve their problems or leave them dangling.
You can write the life you want, you can write a story that is the realization of your own dreams. You can relive the happiest moments in your life, or a create a kind of script for making new happy moments.
Writing can be very therapeutic.
My story is a loooonnnggggg way from finished, but I ended the month with over 58,000 words written. Of course I am pleased with myself for having achieved that much...now I need to finish the book. I love to meet a challenge, complete my goal and all that good stuff, but that isn't what is so therapeutic about writing fiction.
I wrote an earlier post that compared writing (for me) to playing Barbies when I was a child. I had my characters and just played at what their storyline was. Fiction writing truly is a lot like that. The fun part comes in when you get to create conflict and then resolve it. In fiction writing, you can create a character you don't like, and then deal with them however you want to. If you want to have your antagonist eaten by a grizzly bear, you can do that. If you always wanted to live on an island in the South Pacific, you can write yourself there. You can be a race car driver or a turtle farmer, and anything in between. If you are lonely, you can write a love life. If you are happy, you can recreate that again for a reader. It doesn't matter if the conflict is between people, or within a person chasing their own dreams, or maybe with nature. You are the one in charge of everyone's destiny and you can solve their problems or leave them dangling.
You can write the life you want, you can write a story that is the realization of your own dreams. You can relive the happiest moments in your life, or a create a kind of script for making new happy moments.
Writing can be very therapeutic.
You're right and I loved your post.
ReplyDeleteStopping by from Chasing Joy #FBF