How Writing Helps Us Through Hard Times and Life Changes

I love to dabble in new writing genres. So, two weeks ago, I took an online poetry-writing class. During one session, our on-screen instructor posed two related and six-million dollar questions:

Can writing help us through tough times? Or to cope with life changes, like a new job or college?

Can writing help us through tough times? Or to cope with life changes, like a new job or college?

1. “Why do you write?

2. In writing, what is your greater purpose?”

A greater purpose? … Hmmm … I must admit that, most weeks, I’m so mired in deadlines and plans and word counts and, well, coping with daily life during our COVID pandemic, that I had never really, really asked myself about my “greater purpose” in writing.

So I took out my journal to write about why, since I was a 14-year-old convent school girl in Ireland, I have been writing.

Some days I write more than others. Some days I write my morning pages as a way to check in with myself and to start or get through the day. Other days, I’m trying to reach my self-set word count on a novel in progress, or I’m under deadline for the final edits on a personal essay. Or, before I got laid off from my day job, I sometimes let my creative mind wander toward that project list sitting on my office desk.

But back to our poetry instructor’s question. I must say, what I wrote (about why I write) in my journal surprised me. Also, since I soul searched and documented my own motivations for writing, I find myself approaching my work—and my own investment in it—in a slightly different way. In other words, it was really useful to stop and ask, “Why?” Or, “Why bother?”

Spoiler alert: Like most of us, I don’t write for the fame or the money or the glitzy, money-in-the-bank lifestyle (hah!).

I crafted my answers into an article, “I’ve Kept an Expressive Writing Journal for 4 Decades. Here’s Why.

I’ve since had the article reviewed and published at “World of Psychology,” the blog at PsychCentral.

Why Do You Write?

This is really worth thinking and writing about. It’s also interesting to consider how our meaning and motivations have changed over time and with life changes or challenges. Feel free to comment below.

Check out my seminar, “Writing for Stress Relief and Wellness.” The in-person or virtual seminar is available to nonprofit organizations, clinical support groups, caregivers and remote-working employee groups.

Contact me to learn more about this and my other narrative medicine or writing in healthcare programs.