There Will Be Another Sunrise: @OBBookTours - Guest Post - Kat H Clayton

Writing is Cheaper than Therapy

by Kat H. Clayton

Writing serves several purposes in our lives. Writing is a way for us to communicate our thoughts and ideas to others. Writing can preserve factual information and pass it on to the next generation. Usually when we think of writing, we think in terms of how writing benefits the reader and forget that it can also have a profound effect on the person who produces the writing. I think the act of typing or writing out a story of any kind has just as much or maybe even more of an effect on the writer as it does the reader.

For me, writing isn’t just a way for me to share my thoughts and stories with others. It’s a personal form of therapy that’s better than any session with a therapist could ever provide.

When I sit down and spend some time writing, no matter what mood I may start the process in, I always come out with a better attitude and a sense of relief of some tension. I think most people associate this kind of cathartic feeling with journaling or keeping a diary, but I can write fiction and get the same effect.

Several times I can remember having a particularly bad day and sitting down to write some chapters, almost having to force myself to face the computer. I almost have to drag my fingers across the key board, but after those first few sentences the words fly onto the page and my bad mood is lifted with each key stroke. I become immersed in my fictional world and my characters drama and somehow that always alleviates and drama of my own.

Even on the good days when I feel like I’m on top of the world, writing only seems to bring me higher, unless of course I get a bit of writer’s block. But even then, just focusing my brain on getting the next scene down on the page creates some sort of chemical reaction that releases those happy endorphins in my brain.

I have to admit some of my best work comes from the bad days, because I’m trying to focus so hard on making those terrible feelings go away. I try to channel my anger, hurt or disappointment into an intense scene and by doing so it helps me relate to what my characters are going through. I’m angry or aggravated right along with them and as I work to solve their problems, I solve my own (or at the very least feel better about it).

My husband has a t-shirt from one of our favorite weekend getaway destination that says, “Beer is cheaper than therapy.” I would have to say writing a couple of chapters is cheaper than therapy and way more satisfying in the end.