Your story comes out of a mind, a psychology, a world view.
It’s the same brain that worries, and loves, and envies. It’s the same mind that dreams when its sleeps. Or that gets hooked on a TV show or finishes a bag of chips without thinking about it.
Nothing exists in your story that doesn’t come up from the depths of that same mind.
Writing a novel is to excavate a portion of your inner self.
There are dangers to this work. People think writers—artists in general—are more susceptible to anxiety and depression because they work so much alone, or because creative work appeals to emotional people.
Maybe.
But maybe these mental health challenges are made worse because we are stirring up the silt of our subconcious EVERY SINGLE DAY.
In The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien, Gandalf says:”The Dwarves tell no tale; but even as mithril was the foundation of their wealth, so also it was their destruction: they delved too greedily and too deep, and disturbed that from which they fled, Durin’s Bane.”
The Bane he’s talking about the Balrog. And if you’ve read the book—or seen the movie—you know how fearsome that creature was.
And we writers risk awakening our own demons, becausethe act of writing stories is to delve deep. For some some, writing itself is therapeutic. For others, it simply opens wounds. I’m not a mental health professional, so I can’t offer more counsel than this:
If you’re life isn’t working because of anxiety or depression or both, finishing a novel won’t fix it.
It’s time to get help. I have, and it’s made all the difference.
Because there have been times—months on end—when I simply couldn’t write. I didn’t dare.
I didn’t know what was happening to me. Why did my heart start to race, and my head spin with vertigo. Or why would some situations make me weak with nausea and make my cheeks go cold and pressure build and build in my chest?
Looking back, I don’t truly know how I climbed out of that state, but I did not do it alone.
If you need help, get help.
Google some names. Send some emails, make some calls.
Start.
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