The One (and Only) Technique That Finally Helped Me Write About Trauma

• Nobody must ever know that I [thought / said / did / desired] . . . [x].


• What important moment(s) explain where I am that I would never share (that I would never put on my bio/CV)? What am I hiding and why?


• If I truly and deeply loved myself, would I . . . do this / keep myself from doing this / let this be done t

some cases we don’t even know that the wounds and the cramping are there, but both limit us. They keep us moving and writing in tight, worried ways. They keep us standing back or backing away from life, keep us from experiencing life in a naked and immediate way. So how do we break through them and get on?

To write a story that invokes transformation, you may need to stay in the viscerally uncomfortable place of writing while simultaneously accepting the following truths:

Healing your emotional wounds means shattering the soft-focus lens of denial that pretties up ugly truths of family history and personal experience. It also means taking responsibility for your own misdeeds, whatever they may be. Once you’ve got the facts straight, you must also tell the truth about the feelings caused by hurtful events. This kind