Author Surrogacy, Psychotherapy, and Great Writing
How writing is more than a creative outlet.
They say new writers put themselves into their writing. I’ve found that seasoned writers do as well. We only have to look as far as Stephen King’s Dark Tower series to see this great writer add himself to his stories. His character in that series is not only a writer but also named Stephen King.
However, most of the time when writers add themselves to their stories it’s much more subtle. It’s common to add character traits, locations, or even their favorite meal to a story. Even deeper still writers will pour their passions, desires, dreams, and ethics into their fiction.
As a child, I wrote a lot of poetry. These were almost always snippets straight from my heart. Poetry is cathartic that way. When you write poetry it’s an accepted practice to bleed onto the page, pour all your emotions into your words, and bare your soul to the reader.
Growing up, writing poetry was my way of making sense of the world around me. When my parents divorced, when we moved out of state, when a pet died, or when I had my first crush, I wrote about it in a poem. Or ten.
When I started writing long fiction I believed that I shouldn’t include myself at all into these stories. In middle school, this is what my…
