These days every time we spend a minute or two scrolling your phone or check the news on TV, we’re bombarded with dark turns and bad news. Worries and questions about what we can and should do seem to permeate all our conversations. It can be hard to focus on passion projects. It may even feel selfish to hold on to our personal dreams. But we should all try to support each other through that feeling, because now more than ever is the time to share our stories of resilience and hope. When we write through the dark times, we are pushing back against them.
You’ve got the story, you’ve got the idea, you just don’t know the steps in the process. If this is what’s holding your memoir back, I have got the solution for you. The Memoir Method checklist is going to take you through every single step you need from ideas to a published book. You can download it now at pageandpodium.com/checklist.
The Creative Cup
When we are feeling empowered, certain about our place in the world, and safe, writing and other creative projects may come easily. Our energy is not being pulled in so many directions, our mental capacity is not strained by choosing between unattractive options, and our confidence is high. In other words, our cup is pretty full, so pouring from it isn’t scary.
In recent months, it’s been difficult to feel that security in the light of so much instability around us, especially when the news comes at us so fast and constantly. It gives us the feeling that we may want to be careful pouring from that cup. We may question whether it’s the right time to devote our energies to a creative project. We may even feel guilty focusing on ourselves and our stories with so much going on in the world. But stories are so often what carry us through. When we write through the dark times, we’re helping both our own mental and spiritual resilience as well as others who are looking for stories to pull themselves through as well.
We can flip that instinct to redirect our energies on its head. When we pour from the cup, we are processing our feelings, supporting others, and embracing the power we still have to make a difference. We are taking back some of what hardship threatens to take.
Memoir is an important genre to write in dark times
The majority of our subscribers and readers are those working on memoir or hybrid memoir/non-fiction. It is also a very important genre of work for both writers and readers when times are murky, hard, and insecure. In our program of the Memoir Method and authors we’ve worked with, part of the process of writing a memoir is finding that key message at the heart of the story and dialing into it. When you approach it with that focus on high level structure, a magical thing happens. When you are focusing on your values, what is really important, and the most heart-essential lessons you’ve learned in your life, you might be shocked by how much clarity that can bring to your perspective toward the world. That clearer perspective can act as a guiding light—not only in your writing decisions—but in other decisions in your life.
That perspective and key message can also fire you up. It can be a source of energy and resilience in the face of these times, not only for you but for your readers. The lion’s share of writing happens alone, but in connecting to your audience and readers, you can also find community in your future readers. In the act of writing our stories, we are not only performing an act of resilience and resistance, we are reinforcing that ability in ourselves. It can be a source of motivation to remember your own strength.
There is research that shows how writing your life story can have similar benefits to a mindfulness practice like yoga or meditation. It can quite literally help you calm your nervous system and strengthen your emotional regulation. We can use the practice of writing as a guard against the onslaught of negative stimulus from our phones and the news.
This is not to say you can or should check out from the world or eschew with all negative emotions. Negative emotions are inevitable, and being in the world is important. However, setting time to write can act as a regulating exercise, giving us an opportunity to organize our thoughts, focus on our values and message, and feel more control over our emotional state. Writing regularly helps us maintain a calm nervous system, and even if you are not intending to publish, that it not a misuse of your time, even now. Perhaps even especially now.
Strategies to help you write in dark times
- Schedule writing blocks as a time to close off the outside world. It may feel selfish, but you are not helping anyone by doom scrolling. Set a regular time for your writing practice as both self-care and a way you can work towards caring for others.
- Remember that sharing your truth can help uplift others. In his poem, “Motto,” Brecht has a simple call and response. “In the dark times, will there still be singing?” The response is, “Yes, there will be singing about the dark times.” Your writing is a form of singing—adding beauty of art to the world is all the more important when the future looks scary and uncertain. Writing about these times can help carry us all through them.
- Remember that self-care is more than simply necessary for your personal well-being. It is act of resistance to ensure you are not crushed or silenced by the weight of the world. As Audre Lorde said, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” Dark times can make us feel like we matter a little less, but that is a move toward defeat. Speaking and caring for ourselves is pushing back against that darkness.
- Embrace the joy of creation. Writing a memoir is a marathon, not a sprint. We have also seen more and more that living through dark times is similarly a marathon, not a sprint. Holding onto joy can refill our cup and keep us from becoming overwhelmed.
- Embrace lightness and play. Experiment with your writing! Try new things, give yourself the daring permission to play with how you express these essential and important ideas. Exercising your freedom to play with your expression can be like working a muscle, the more you do, the more free you can be and feel.
- Find your community. We’ve spoken often on this blog and video channel about building platform, and this can feel very different than finding a community as the focus is on profit and successful publishing. But the act of building a community looks very similar in practice. Look for your like-minded people who may want to read your story or are writing one of their own.
Don’t stop. Even now, especially now, Happy Writing.
