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You Don’t Have to Have a Life Full Of Trauma
To Be a Good Writer
Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.” – George Bernard Shaw
In order to be a good writer, you don’t need a life full of trauma, the key is to see the moments that mattered from a different perspective. The point is, your life doesn’t need to sound like one of those after-school specials, (remember them?) This is why your story matters.
Some of the things I have experienced in my life could be classified as trauma, but that’s not why I’m a writer, though it has made me more empathic towards others.
Many of us have experienced trauma in life, but we may not choose to express that trauma in writing. Does that mean we are bad writers? The truth may actually be quite the opposite, perhaps we are waiting to be able to tell our own trauma story more effectively. The problem with being too close to trauma is that we cannot distance ourselves from it enough, and in some cases, we may not be able to share our story for one reason or another. Keeping it all bottled up isn’t necessary, what I’m saying is you shouldn’t share those things that could retraumatize you.
“A writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent…
