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Journaling - The Write Stuff For You?
Just Want to Talk | Last Active: 8 hours ago | Replies (430)Comment receiving replies
I find it hard to write without writing to someone. When I realized this about myself, I asked my therapist, if she would mind me writing to her when I have thoughts I need to put into words. She said sure. She has no obligation to answer, obviously. So every now and then, I write what I am thinking and feeling, especially when there is a lot going on in my head, and I feel things need to get organized to make sense. That's what writing does for me, I think. It helps give voice to what I'm thinking and feeling, but it also helps me organize a whirlwind of ideas into some coherent sentences. I have read that for depressives, journaling about emotionally significant thoughts/ events can improve mental health. I'm sure most people on here know that, but I did not know it til I read that in Susan David's book, in the chapter where she talks about James Pennebaker's research on depression and journaling. Thanks for the opportunity to talk to others about this.
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"I find it hard to write without writing to someone. "
That's a much-respected writer's technique: have someone in mind when you sit down to write. The someone needn't be a real someone (although that often helps), but visualizing your reader can help to focus and propel your writing. So often in my writers' critique group, I'll hear someone ask the writer whose work is being critiqued, "Who's your audience?" The writer's work will seem unfocused, scattershot, all over the place. You needn't reveal whom you had in mind when you wrote, but having had someone in mind––real or imagined––will most often give your words direction and purpose.