I like the quote above.
I think our stories are often healing for the writer and for readers
In my memoir classes, I hear stories about hardship, pain, and loneliness. Pat Conroy, the popular novelist wrote about his family, the abusive father who was a highly respected Marine.
Conroy, who wrote about his feelings when he was young and witnessed his dad fighting and almost killing his mother, said he thought all families were like his own. He didn't report the abuse because he thought it was normal.
Although his books were written as novels, I wonder if they aren't autobiographical fiction. I am trying my hand at writing my true stories as fiction. How do I do that? Changing the names and places, adding my own thoughts as my character's words.
It is said that all writers, whether they write fiction or nonfiction, take experiences from their own lives and give them to people in their books.
That is what Pat Conroy did, I believe. His books are deep and involved because his characters are based on real people with real problems. He said, "I write about what I know."
It seems that many, many people grew up in dysfunctional homes--some with addiction issues and some with parents who suffered from mental illness. The writer feels a release when writing these stories, stories he/she would never talk about. They would not shame their family or themselves by talking openly about abusive parents.
But when the stories are written with reflections on how they felt at the time and what they experienced as children, helpless to fix the problems, the writers feel as if they have opened a box — long shut and locked — and freed the feelings they have harbored.
Readers can open their closed box as well. They are no longer alone with the painful secrets hidden deep inside. When we share with others through writing, we offer medicine for the heart, soul, and mind without a doctor's prescription. Writers are indeed healers, and their stories bring medicine to the world.
