Not sure if this is the right place for this, but people tell me that since I'm such a great writer that I should use my creative writing as a way to let my emotions out. The only porblem is I don't know how to. I have tried just journaling what I feel, but that doesn't seem to help much. It seems that writing my emotions out doesn't help much for some reason. Am I doing something wrong. If not are there other creative ways for me to get my emotions out. By the way don't suggest painting my emotions out because I'm afraid it would turn out abstract and I hate abstract art.
I was brought up as a little kid that my emotions, especially my anger and depression, were bad so I would end up keeping them inside until I couldn't handle them anymore and I would end up taking my emotions out on others. To this day I still feel as though my emotions are bad so I usually keep them to myself, but when I do that I still end up taking my emotions out on someone. That's why I feel as though I need to get them out. Also people have suggested that I find other ways of letting my emotions out then just gettting angry at others.
Getting emotions out vs keeping them in sounds to me like pop psychology (sorry, no offense intended). Have you considered seeking some more current psychological counseling? It you are taking your emotions out on anyone, you may need some professional help. Anger management perhaps? It's a little more complex than simply getting one's emotions out a different way. It also involves learning ways to stop yourself at the beginning of an outburst of anger.
Are you creative in your head? Can you imagine stories, with characters in them? Don't write a journal. It will make you focus on yourself, and probably negative things about yourself, which doesn't really help. In fact it can make you feel worse by making you re-live old painful experiences or see only negativity in present ones. Instead, fictionalise your life. Create a character and a story that deals with an issue or issues you feel strongly about. Make the character similar to yourself, or—and this can be a lot more fun as well as theraputic—make them a lot different from yourself. Even change their gender, if this helps you get distance. Whatever it is that you're feeling angry or depressed about, put it into story form AND THEN CHANGE IT. Make the starting situation different. Or if there is something you wish you had done, but didn't in real life—make your character do it. If you grew up rich, make your character grow up poor, or vice-versa. If you had a great family, give him/her a rotten one. If you had a terrible family experience, give him/her a good one. If your love relationships didn't work, give your character one that does. If you are introverted, make your character an extrovert. Change SOMETHING about the situation. How do you wish a situation had turned out? Make that happen! Stick with the issue that bothers you, shift it around as much as you can, and see where it takes you. The story doesn't have to be ABOUT the issue, but the issue should figure in somewhere. It might even be the starting point for an entirely different kind of story. Your story outcome might be a lot different from yours. Or, interestingly, it might not change at all. Either way, you'll end up with a lot of insight into your own situation. And you'll feel better for having channeled your thoughts and emotions into something creative, that other people might well enjoy reading. Good luck! Trust me, this does work.
Yup, agreed on all counts. That whole get the rage on the page thing is very 70's and didn't really help its major 'celebrity' proponents (Anne Sexton). I can't help but be reminded of Running with Scissors. I agree with Ginger in that anger management is a better alternative in that it address the action, not the reaction.
I, for one, have found writing to be a very good way to get my emotions out. I have been journaling and writing creatively for years, using my emotions as a starting point. It has been absolutely integral to my own healing process and quite therapeutic. I can tell you what I do. This may not work for everyone but it works for me. I focus on my feelings and, at first, write whatever comes into my head and then, over time, I wait for images to rise up from the unconscious. The images that come up can be characters that find themselves in difficult situations with danger or conflict, because that may be how I am feeling. These situations can be very simple -- character stuck in a well. I go from there and expand on this conflict. I do this whether I am feeling angry, lonely, sad, whatever. Then the images, characters that come up are also dealing with those same emotions. I let the characters talk and tell me what is going on. I cry. I rage. For me, it helps. Another thing would be to tap into something that you are striving for or feel passionate about or are longing for. So, just as an example, if you are lonely and want love, then perhaps think about how that feels and how a character might embody that need -- the need for love and what they might do about it and then what obstacles are getting in there way (Internal? External? Life circumstances? All of the above?). I have also focused on issues that I feel passionate about. Again, I try to focus on things that cause me to have an emotional reaction because that, I think, will enable me to sustain the motivation to write the thing and will, hopefully, tap into someone else's emotions if they read it. Good luck.
I found a good way of not bottling up emotions, and then having them explode, is that, when something annoys you, just be frank and upright with whoever it is that's pissing you off. If you don't, they won't stop because they don't know they're offending you, and you will only get angrier. You may start to act passive-aggressive, or have a freak-out. Also, try exercising. If you have a problem with your mood, exercise, a healthy diet, and plenty of sleep is a great way to help restore some equilibrium.
I really doubt anger management would work for me. Also neither would going up to the person and telling them what offends me as people never seem to listen to me. I guess the best I can do is get my emotions out through writing them down in a fictional story, but I'm not even sure if that will work.
Learning to get your emotions out in your writing is basically a part of learning to write well. Difficulty lies in letting go and opening up, even when we write fiction. We'll censor events for our characters based on our phobias or hangups, and it's a difficult thing to overcome. The best thing to do is practice writing. And reading, to recognise honest moments in other people's writing. You'll recognise the authenticity of their emotion through their words. Take note of how it sounds, so you can spot it when it happens to you.
yeah I have noticed that when I try to write my emotions out I tend to censor them because of my fear of letting them out, which I've had since I was really little.
