I suspect many of my followers and visitors have trouble finding the perfect gift for their friends who are in grief, and that on occasion includes themselves. As my own years accumulate I find myself losing friends at a faster rate than I could have possibly imagined and if that feel of loss is accompanied by frustration over not know what to send to a grieving frend--even which book that’s out there!, I feel compelled to share this one by one of the most prolific author I know.
Dawn Colclasure is a writer that I collaborate with occasionally and have come to be long distance friends over the many years we’ve been doing that and I was struck by this. her Substack entry, she recently published after the release of her Last Writes and felt I must share it. So, naturally, I just asked. It’s a miracle technique that works more often than not! So here it is with my gratitude, and--I hope--yours!
A Time to Grieve and a Time to WriteBy Dawn Colclasure
Of course, not every writer is going to write about a personal experience as a poem. However, it can be written about in a personal journal or a blog post. I have many friends who have written about their personal experiences in a Facebook post just to capture that experience while it is still fresh in their minds.
But whatever way a person chooses to record their personal experiences or some kind of emotional trauma they are going through, the very act of putting everything into words is what can help the writer write more realistically about these things in their work.
It usually isn’t easy for someone to write about the trauma or loss they are experiencing. Most people feel that writing about missing a loved one or the sheer sadness over losing someone can make them feel worse. However, what it actually does is provide us with an outlet to release our pain, process our emotions, and work through our thought processes. In most cases, with the act of writing about a traumatic experience privately, it provides the person with a private place to air all of their grievances, give voice to their negative feelings and act as a sounding board for all of the things that they want to say but feel that they can’t say. This, too, can work to the writer’s benefit, because it allows them access to the raw emotions overpowering them in the moment which could be sourced later on in their work of fiction or poetry.
So the next time you experience something that really tugs at your heart and shatters your soul, write about it as soon as you are able to. Write all of the good things as well as all of the bad things. You will feel better for releasing all of these emotions and thoughts raging inside of you, and grateful later on that you can use it in your writing.
Dawn Colclasure is a Deaf writer in Eugene, Oregon. She began writing at a young age. She’s a freelance writer, book reviewer, and columnist. She is the author and co-author of several books, among them several poetry books such as Touched by Fire, April Showers, We Will Never Have Enough Daysand Nature Therapy. Her poetry, articles, essays and short stories have appeared in magazines, newspapers, websites and anthologies. She publishes the SPARREW Newsletter online each month, which includes the helpful Tricky Edits column written by Carolyn Howard-Johnson. Her websites are https://dawnsbooks.com/ and https://www.dmcwriter.com/. She’s on Facebook, Bluesky @dmcwriter.bsky.social, TikTok at https://www.tiktok.com/@dawncolclasurewilson , tumblr under the name crankytruthseeker, and Instagram @dawn10325.
Dawn was inspired to write this post for her Substack shortly after her new poetry book, Last Writes (https://www.amazon.com/Last-Writes-Dawn-Colclasure/dp/B0H8ZWZDDJ/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0) was published. The fact that poetry she had written while grieving the loss of her brother one year ago moved her to pen these words, with the understanding that sometimes, the hardest things we go through in life are the things we need to write about.
Dawn Colclasure is a Deaf writer in Eugene, Oregon. She began writing at a young age. She’s a freelance writer, book reviewer, and columnist. She is the author and co-author of several books, among them several poetry books such as Touched by Fire, April Showers, We Will Never Have Enough Daysand Nature Therapy. Her poetry, articles, essays and short stories have appeared in magazines, newspapers, websites and anthologies. She publishes the SPARREW Newsletter online each month, which includes the helpful Tricky Edits column written by Carolyn Howard-Johnson. Her websites are https://dawnsbooks.com/ and https://www.dmcwriter.com/. She’s on Facebook, Bluesky @dmcwriter.bsky.social, TikTok at https://www.tiktok.com/@dawncolclasurewilson , tumblr under the name crankytruthseeker, and Instagram @dawn10325.
Dawn was inspired to write this post for her Substack shortly after her new poetry book, Last Writes (https://www.amazon.com/Last-Writes-Dawn-Colclasure/dp/B0H8ZWZDDJ/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0) was published. The fact that poetry she had written while grieving the loss of her brother one year ago moved her to pen these words, with the understanding that sometimes, the hardest things we go through in life are the things we need to write about.
BURNING THE MIDNIGHT OIL: How We Survive as Writing Parents, Love is Like a Rainbow: Poems of Love and Devotion, Songs of the Dead, The Yellow Rose, DOGS FOREVER: Poems for the Dog Person (with Jennifer Wilson), Follow That Dream, On the Wings of Pink Angels: Triumph, Struggle and Courage Against Breast Cancer, The Perfect Christmas, A Million Doughnuts, Hunter's Upcycling Adventures, Satyrs Are Cool: Poems of Mythological Creatures (with Jennifer Wilson), The GHOST Group, Book One (The Ghosts of Sarah Travers and The Crying Valentine), Touched by Fire, Shadow of Samhain, Terror In The Night I - Alien Abduction Exposed! (with Martha Jette and Usko Ahonen), The Warrior Way, Parenting Pauses: Life as a Deaf Parent, April Showers, The GHOST Group Book Two (The Ghost of the Irish Setter and The Ghost of the Missing Hiker), Remember the Soldier, Wolf Whispers, A Ghost on Every Corner, Yesterday's Words, Faded Reflection, Wandering Soul, God's Birds, Burning the Midnight Oil Revisited, Seasonal Songs, Fabulously Frugal: How to Manage Your Money, Live for Less and Build Up Your Savings, Poems for the Grieving Heart, Imprint, Ramblings & Misgivings, Dream World, We Will Never Have Enough Days, Savage World, Remembering Sunny, The Dream Forest, Self-Care Suggestions Book, True Ghost Stories, The Idea Workbook: How to Choose and Use Your Ideas, 101 Quotes on Poetry, The Big Book of Writing Challenges, 10 Ways to Boost Your Mental Health, Meditating Heart, The GHOST Group: Book Three, Free Stuff For Writers, Lost Soul, 5 Tales, The Power of Words, Tarnished Heart, Write for Your Life! The Health Benefits of Writing, A Tiny Light, The Newbie Author's Guide to Getting Your Book Published, Write Like the Wind! Inspirational Notes for Writers, Promote Your Book on a Shoestring...or Less, The House That Madness Built, 30 Flash Horror Stories, Only In My Dreams, Terrors, The Worst Thing You Ever Did, All the Beautiful Things, Watch This Space, Shadows, Nature Therapy, Monsters and Mayhem, Triggered, Other, Vengeance from Beyond, I'll Be Ghosting You, Home for the Holidays, Christmas Frights, Curse of the Blood Witch, 3 A.M. Poetry, Noiseless, Last Writes
