Therapeutic Writing: Write Down Your Thoughts

May 17, 2023 Elizabeth

Do therapeutic writing and write down your thoughts and feelings when overwhelmed with stress and tough times. Write often in a journal, and/or make a mind map. By practicing writing sessions such as these, you can combat depressive symptoms.

Nip feelings of depression in the bud with positive things like gratitude journaling. Such actions can help you steer clear of negative emotions. In fact, they may very well reveal possible solutions as well as release underlying emotions.

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Mind Mapping

What does mind mapping have to do with therapeutic writing? Like therapeutic journaling, making a mind map is a great way to organize your thoughts, ideas, and life experiences. A mind map technique can be therapeutic in that it can help you discover multiple solutions for stress triggers.

Mind mapping also works very well for authors when organizing ideas and chapters for fiction as well as nonfiction.

Write Consistently

Authors of bestseller and successful books write consistently. However, authors’ writing methods vary.

One author may write every morning, Monday through Friday. Perhaps another author writes consistently but in the evenings and/or on weekends. Use the method of consistency that works best for you.

Whether you use journal therapy and mind mapping for book writing or emotional health benefits, the key to success is to write consistently.

Writing Therapy Creates Positive Changes

The use of writing therapy creates positive changes especially through repetition, writing often. Utilize these writing forms mentioned as an effective means for productivity. Thus, the expressive writing therapy will help you become a great writer.

On the other hand, practicing an exercise of writing will encourage you in a healthy way to overcome emotional distress. Given time, practicing different types of writing therapy for emotional writing can be beneficial when going through difficult experiences.

Distractions

Create good habits to minimize distractions in your life. You don’t have to be a writer, per se, to start a journaling habit. No matter the writing exercise you choose, journaling could be the first step in boosting your physical health.

Journal entries, incidentally, require the simple act of taking a piece of paper, writing down thoughts on a blank page. The old school way is to use a pencil (easy to erase and rewrite) and an inexpensive notebook. Or do it 21st century style, and record ideas in your smartphone.

So begin a journaling practice as an emotional expression or a form of therapy to gather ideas for a novel.

Record Experiences from the Seasons of Life

Record experiences from the seasons of life, even if it’s only for your family. Write it for your children, grandchildren, and future generations. Your voice matters.

Humanity has been faced with plagues, epidemics, and pandemics as well as wars since the beginning of time.

Write It Down

Come up with your idea for a novel, and write it down. Once you write the first idea, your journal entries and mind mapping will take you on a creative journey. Then do the research for your novel idea.

After you get accustomed to writing down negative thoughts or about difficult times, consider a different perspective of writing. Turn those negative experiences into a historical fiction novel.

So write down your own feelings about the world around you. Keep a journal. Even if it’s for your personal encouragement, writing down your thoughts is therapeutic.

Historical Fiction from Life Events

How can you pivot difficult emotions and traumatic experiences into historical fiction from life events? Historical fiction is written by perusing history books, personal diaries, and historical accounts of individuals who experienced horrific events. Therefore, we learn of the resilience and determination people had to withstand difficult life events.

We know how people suffered or overcame hardships through the ages by what they recorded. They kept diaries, wrote poems, and published their writings.

If you are not up to the challenge of writing, ask a family member or friend to write in a journal for you. Your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to come will appreciate that you thought of documenting your feelings, emotions, and experiences.

What Sources Help Authors Write About Past Events?

Use sources like newspapers, artifacts, letters, diaries, and books when writing about past events. Taking a trip to a city in a book’s setting is a good idea for authors. This gives a sense of place.

Writing about past events in the area you live, for instance, will bring to light your own perspective. Even siblings react differently when affected by the most stressful event of their lives. Your way of dealing with emotional experiences of a particular event may help the reader overcome a similar situation.

For example, the area’s environment like the weather or trees that grow in the area’s gardening zone could spark ideas. Thus, an entire chapter could unfold about the character’s anxious thoughts regarding emotional events.

Intertwine Events with Ideas

Intertwine historic traumatic events with ideas derived from your source material to create historical fiction. Reading letters and diaries give insight to how individuals coped. Consequently, you, the author will be able to create an authentic scenario through your novel’s characters.

Feeling the humidity, chilly air, or a summer’s breeze equips the writer with realistic descriptions to convey through a character. Walking down the street of a famous city, like Paris, may inspire an author, as it did me. The sense of place lets the writer experience emotions that a person centuries ago may have felt at that same location.

The French Connection Historical Fiction Series

The French Connection Historical Fiction series includes Silk or Sugar, Return to Chateau Fleury, and Mon Amour, Friend or Foe historical romances. The series delves into the lives of characters that exemplify the effects of the French Revolution.

The French Connection novels cover eras from May 5, 1789 to November 9, 1799 and World War II from September 1, 1939 to September 2, 1945. The main characters follow the de Fleury and de Laval families from various times in the eighteenth century to the end of the twentieth century.

The sense of place is a powerful tool in creating historical fiction. Actually being at the places of protagonists helped with imagining what it was like to live in their social world. It became more realistic to describe their resilience in spite of trials and difficulties they suffered.

A Note to the Reader from Elizabeth Pye

Research to Experience the Reality of an Era

Research for my historical fiction series was very important to me. The reason was I wanted to know, feel, and experience the reality of the eras I was writing about. Traveling to the places of my settings was meaningful because I could walk in the vicinity of where my characters walked.

Strolling through flower gardens, I could sense the aroma of native flowers grown by gardeners in the area. Likewise, the weather would give me a feeling of what it would be like to live in the countryside or city of my character’s setting. Enjoy the journey with me as you read the French Connection novels.

Elizabeth Pye

Fiction with a French Connection