RESOURCES FOR WRITERS
Tips for Writers • Useful Links
The Power of Words
How important is it to be able to verbalize our personal experience of the world?
Paulo Freire taught that education is founded upon the discovery and exchange of words – words that convey personal truth. Words can change our lives if they resonate with our own truth. Words create a transformation. Naming the world brings self-awareness, dignity, and hope. It enables the individual to deal with life effectively.
So you create a great fictional character and a conflict of monstrous proportions. Negative feelings assault your hero. Pen in hand you battle through the ordeal till at last he or she stands victorious over the fallen trauma.
Your imagination and your writing device just saved you money on medical expenses!
"Yeah, right," you say.
I'm serious.
Studies done with college students showed fewer visits to the infirmary for those students who wrote about the trauma in their lives. In one study students were instructed to write about trauma they had not actually experienced. Greenberg, Wortman, and Stone found that "even writing about an imagined trauma one time for 20 minutes provided health benefits."
Writing about imaginary traumas as though the writer had experienced them is the lifeblood of fiction. So blow the smoke off the end of your pen and put the change in your pocket!
HER PHOENIX HEART by Cindy Hiday ~ A contemporary story about renewal of the human spirit and finding the courage to love again. Resources for writers & book lovers.
