Edwina Shaw

When the going gets tough, writing helps. From an early age I discovered that writing helped me make sense of the world, or at least helped me understand it better. Many writers are driven in the same way. We write to get thoughts in order, or discover the truth of our feelings about a situation.

Over the past several years I’ve been working with Forgotten Australians who have suffered more trauma than most of the rest of us put together. Together we’ve figured out ways to use writing, and in particular fiction, to harness the power of the imagination to bring comfort and healing to the stories of our pasts and bring in lighter energies for our futures. Transforming victims into superheroes!

We are often driven to write after the loss of someone we love, not just to try and make sense of their loss but also to leave some sort of record of them, a mark on the world. This was certainly so for Thrill Seekers which bears witness to my brother Matty’s battle with adolescent onset schizophrenia. I wrote A Guide Through Grief the year after my infant son Teddy’s death from a congenital heart defect, to comfort myself and make sense of his loss, but also to bring some good into the world from his coming and going.

https://edwinashaw.com/buy-a-guide-to-grief-and-thrill-seekers-here/

Most of us have long hard stories stuck in our heads about all the wrong that has been done to us, the litany of woes, the stories that just won’t let us rest. These stories need to be released onto paper. It’s the best way I know to free yourself from having to relive those sad stories over and over. After all, the past is gone forever. We don’t have to keep replaying it in our minds.

Dorothea Lange: Dyanna lying on her back in the grass circa 1961

Here are a few writing activities I’ve found useful for healing emotional pain.

Keeping a journal

This is never to be read. Not by you. Not by anyone. This is just pure complaining, whinging and moaning territory where you can play the “poor me” record as often as you like. Pour anger, grief, bitterness and rage onto the pages of your journal every morning then head into your day feeling lighter. I follow the Julia Cameron Artist’s Way “Morning Pages” commandment of three pages longhand, but you don’t have to do that much. Just make sure you download at least some of the hard stuff each day. Come home to yourself on the page. And finish with something positive – an affirmation like I am safe, all is well, or a list of things you’re grateful for.

Write out your Truth

If you have a story stuck in your head about a past traumatic event, or a recent loss, then write it down. Don’t gloss over it. Go into specific details. Where were you? What was going on before and after this? Fill in all the sensory details, every last moment explored deeply. Weep and wail as you write but get all that hard story out of your head and onto the page. It doesn’t have to be great art, but it just might be the start of something like beauty. Be honest. Tell your truth. Your voice is valid and valuable.

Rewrite the Past

We don’t have to stick with the endings life gives us. We have the great gift of our imaginations to create other alternate realities. For example, although in real life my brother killed himself at twenty, in Thrill Seekers I was able to give him a new ending where he and his brother went off to explore the world. What ending would you like to change? Who would you like to give another chance at life? Write your story and change the ending to what you wish it could have been. The past can’t be changed, but we can change the way we feel about it by giving ourselves alternate happier endings that make us smile.

In the Shoes of the Enemy

This one is a little challenging but can be very rewarding. If someone has done you wrong, let’s say that wicked nun who beat you up and belittled you in Grade 3, then write a story from the perpetrator’s perspective. You can make her as mean and vicious as you like, but maybe, just maybe, something was going on in her own life that made her act so abhorrently. This is one of writing’s greatest gifts. It is the only artform where we can truly explore what it is like to be in the mind of another person. It is a wonderful tool for compassion, even for the very worst of enemies.

Revenge is Sweet

If having compassion for those who hurt you, isn’t your cup of tea, then try writing a story where they get their comeuppance! Get the kids in the nun’s classroom to lock her in and throw mud at her. Or write an unhappy ending to that lover who did you wrong. Revenge is safe on paper. I’d rather try to forgive and move on, but if you must have your revenge, then do it on paper. You could write yourself a brand new lover and write a scene where you encounter your ex and show off like mad. Have fun!

These exercises are just the tip of the iceberg of the many ways we can use writing and other creative activities to help us to heal our emotional pain and find peace. If you’re struggling with loss or trauma, you may find my Guide Through Grief a useful ally, full of helpful ideas and exercises to help you heal. I’ve also recorded a short Meditation for Comfort and Joy to help uplift your heart, even on the toughest of days.

We are given creativity to express our feelings and help us to heal. What helps you most on hard days?

Take good care of yourself and keep looking up. Life is good and love is around every corner.

Lots of love,

Edwina xx

Little Pearl the puppy – the newest addition to our extended family.

“Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start,” sang Julie Andrews in the sound of music. Now, while this may be a very good place to start learning your ABCs and Do Re Mi’s, it’s really not the best place to start your story.

These days we have the very short attention spans of those addicted to scrolling through social media or flicking through Netflix shows, to deal with. We can’t afford a meandering beginning to our novel, memoir or, most of all, our short stories. We need to hook the reader IMMEDIATELY! Yes, right away we have to establish a quest, question or character who is so compelling and complex that our reader wants to keep turning those pages as quickly as she can.

The best way to do this is to start with ACTION: A scene where your character is doing something that demonstrates their unique, intriguing personality and establishes, or at least gives us a giant clue as to what is at stake.

WHAT IS AT STAKE?

What does your character have to lose? Will the world end if Jack Reacher or James Bond doesn’t defeat the evil overlord? Will a family become destitute if at least one of the sisters doesn’t marry a rich man? Will a teenager die of mortification if she doesn’t get a date to the school dance?

What is at stake may be something as seemingly insignificant as that date, but it must feel vital to your protagonist. The reader has to care whether the character will achieve their goal or not. Remember: SUSPENSE = HOPE + FEAR!

SET UP YOUR CENTRAL QUEST OR QUESTION

Using what is at stake, establish within your first few pages the central challenge for your character. Will James Bond defeat Goldfinger and save the world? Will one of those sisters marry a rich man and save her family from poverty? Will our teen get a date?

Make sure your opening pages are setting up this question as it drives the narrative forward and compels your reader to turn pages. Remember that your first readers are your potential agent or publisher.

BEWARE OF BACKSTORY

A common error made by new writers is the, what I like to call, “Charles Dickens Opening”. Eg: I was born… It’s important for writers to know in detail the backgrounds and upbringings of their characters, but the most important elements of this can be woven into your story later, once you’ve established forward momentum by your central quest or question. So if your opening is full of wonderful detail about your protagonists early childhood, and perhaps even the history of their family; if you say to potential readers, “But just wait till chapter 4, that’s when it gets really exciting,” then it’s time to create another file called, “Bits I love and may need later” and CUT CUT CUT!

CUT TO THE CHASE

A wonderful rule to follow, whatever you’re writing is:

GET IN LATE AND GET OUT FAST!

Start as close to the central action of any scene as you can (with it still making sense) and get out before you write too much and bring closure where none is needed. Leave that scene ending open, so your reader is left wondering what happened next. Leave gaps for the reader to fill in themselves. This is the joy of reading.

Wonder Woman scissors to make cutting fun 🙂

By all means, write that backstory. Write it all down, but then go back and find where the action really starts and cold heartedly cut that backstory. Remember you can always weave it back in as flashbacks or just one liners here and there that give us clues about a character’s past. Reveal that past slowly. And most importantly CUT ANYTHING THAT DOESN’T EITHER DEVELOP CHARACTER OR FURTHER YOUR PLOT!