Guest Blogger: Marlene Cullen, The Writing Prompt Queen

Marlene Cullen

 I have a new writer friend who gives various prompts to help writers get some inspiration to write. I have dubbed her The Writing Prompt Queen. She has also edited three anthologies for writers about writing. See links in Marlene's guest post today. 

Ways To Heal When Writing

You can use the difficulties in your life and represent them in your writing.  Describe the difficulties as if writing a scene in a novel.

Look at your situation from a different point of view – from that of a character in a story.

Take A Break
When your writing becomes too difficult, stop. Take a break. Go for a walk. Treat yourself to a glass of iced tea or hot apple cider. Wash your hands with special scented soap. Do something physical to relax your mind.

Use a focal point as a reminder to relax and breathe deeply. A focal point is anything you like to look at: in your home, your writing environment, or outside.

Have A Plan
Have a plan for when you are feeling overwhelmed and need relief from emotional tension while you are writing.

Prepare a healthy snack before you begin to write. When the writing gets difficult, take a few minutes to nurture yourself, whether it’s food, a soothing drink, or a visual treat. Look at a pleasant picture or a memento that has good memories for you, or get physical. Go for a walk,  stretch, move around.

Empowering

Writing is a type of self-care that can be very empowering. Writing about emotional situations gives you some control in your present situation and new ways to look at past experiences, where you didn’t have control.

Use your writing to heal, being careful to not re-traumatize yourself.  You might benefit from the healing potential of telling your story.

Practice writing about your past without letting it overwhelm you.

“If we write about our pain, we heal gradually, instead of feeling powerless and confused, and we move to a position of wisdom and power.” — Writing As A Way of Healing by Louise DeSalvo

Links to healing through writing on The Write Spot Blog:

How to write without adding trauma.
The Healing Power of Images Prompt #139
Does your heart hurt? Prompt #269

BIO:  Growing up in the Mission District of San Francisco offers a treasure chest of stories for Marlene Cullen to write about. Living in the same Sonoma County farmhouse with her husband since 1977 and raising three wonderful children on this rural property provides a rich bounty of cherished and tender memories to choose from and turn into stories.

Marlene is the editor of The Write Spot series:  The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Discoveries, The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Connections, The Write Spot: Reflections. These anthologies include entertaining vignettes and writing prompts. Every contributor offers encouragement to writers to keep writing.  Each volume has a resource section, guiding readers to become writers.

Marlene’s blog, The Write Spot Blog, features over 400 writing prompts, places to submit writing, encouragement to write, and techniques to improve writing.

Marlene's short stories and essays have been published in literary journals, anthologies, and newspapers.

The Write Spot