Write Out Loud (Reviews and Writing)

or looking after your mental health as a writer

“The days of the depressed writer… killing himself after burning all his manuscripts and considering himself a failure, are over – or they should be.”

The Covid Pandemic seemingly brought grief and joy in equal measure albeit often with some getting the joy and others, unfortunately, suffering the grief. I was one of the lucky ones who got the joy. No one near and dear to me died from covid. I got to spend a lockdown with the very best spring season I’ve ever known in the UK, enjoyed cups of tea in my garden and listened to the birds and sound of the waves crashing on the shore just down the road.

Overall, the enforced lockdowns, certainly in places like the UK, changed both how people work and how people think about work. Hybrid working (using communal offices and also working from home or even at holiday locations) has become fairly commonplace although both the Government and various industries and businesses have attempted to force people back into the office entirely. On the whole, such attempts are lacklustre and haven’t worked. The stats show that people actually work better if they are at home, having a cuppa while cuddling their pet. It’s not the cure for all ills; some people need the socialisation of the office, or have home lives they need escape from, or need to be hands on in the workplace. But the option to work from home where appropriate is here to stay – and rightly so.

Along with this, came a realisation that mental health is more important than work. We began to appreciate getting the work-life balance right was more important than having lots of money, being ‘successful’ and so on. The younger generation of people are especially embracing this – bravo to them!

The problem for writers is that writing is a lonely profession on the whole and often the only critical voice you have is yourself. This can be a dangerous thing if you suffer from bipolar disorder or some other form of depression.

Sylvia Plath, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf and many other great writers killed themselves. J K Rowling, Edgar Allen Poe, Emily Dickinson, F Scott Fitzgerald, Tennessee Williams, Leo Tolstoy, Mark Twain, Ezra Pound, Philip K Dick, Franz Kafka and many others were plagued by depression. Matt Haig has literally made a career out of writing about his depression and suicidal tendencies.

Depression has often been referred to as ‘the black dog’ and it isn’t a bad metaphor. It is silent, waits by your side and strikes fast and viciously when you least expect it. It is a loyal companion unless you can persuade it to wander off. I know this having suffered from this beast since I was a boy. I’ve had several traumas in my life, two of which resulted in needing medical help and having a period of time on antidepressants. These were times when the world seemed so black it became almost a physical reality – where I couldn’t see anything at all in front of me. More often than not, you can feel the blackness creeping up on you, lurking in your peripheral vision, sucking on your soul. It is a ghastly feeling of doom.

Writing and depression often come together. The essence of writing is having something to say and when you’re depressed you either have the urge to say lots, or else ‘getting it out there’ is cathartic for you. Sometimes it is both. My second book, ‘The Old Man on the Beach’, was born out of the desire to tell stories of my life and as a form of self-therapy for getting through horrific trauma at the time. It worked wonders for me personally but I’m pleased people still read the stories and thoroughly enjoy them.

So there is much to say for embracing your black dog if you’re a writer. Most of the great writers I listed above, wrote great works from the depressive urge. It is a fount of wisdom, experience and insight into the human condition. And with so many in the world struggling with their own black dogs, it resonates with an endless source of readers. If you’re in this situation, know that your writing can be of great help to others even when you feel like you’re writing from weakness or shame.

But it is also important to look after yourself and never has there been a time where this has been recognised more, post-covid as we are. The days of the depressed writer, working eight hours a day, drinking heavily, beating his wife and killing himself after burning all his manuscripts and considering himself a failure, are over – or they should be.

The best advice I can give anyone with depression is this: surround yourself with people who care about you and with whom you can talk without fear of judgement. I know this is easier said than done at times and there are a variety of agencies who are there to help you if you need it. Don’t be alone. There is help somewhere. Google can help you a lot better than I for search appropriate places of help in your locality.

Jeffrey Masson wrote a renegade book on psychiatry and other therapies back in 1988, called Against Therapy, trashing all of the well known therapies of the day. It has become established as a must-read book for therapists in training. A key point made in one of his revised editions was that therapy has replaced the simple ‘village’ life we used to lead rurally where the menfolk would gossip all day while working the fields and the women would gossip all day while looking after the home. The jobs and roles aren’t important here – the sense of community is. We are social creatures and we need to share in community, at least to some extent or another. As societies have become more isolationist, so the need for a ‘professional’ to talk to has increased. There is much to be said for his point. It is, as an old Telecom advert said, good to talk.

But for writers specifically, where our work is (by nature) so isolationist, there’s a real need to do that talking. Luckily, in today’s interconnected world, there are definite routes for helping you keep sane and ward off the critical voices stopping you writing. Increasingly, social media is joining writers together in groups. On Facebook, there’s plenty of online groups either with global, national or local perspectives. I’m a member of a Cumbrian writers group, for instances, as I live in Cumbria, UK. Or you could join a murder mystery writers group if that’s your genre? Or connect with writers from completely different cultures, experiences and backgrounds. Whatever floats your boat.

On such groups you can interact as little or as much as you like but you will always find likeminded writers who are sympathetic to whatever issues you might be going through – whether it be writer’s block, practical issues with a writing program or feeling down and ready to jack it all in. You have to be careful, of course, but like with any friendship, you gradually learn who is your kind of person and who is not.

Similarly, Instagram and (formerly named) Twitter can be excellent places to pick up support, mentors, beta readers or good friends in the writing world. The short-form nature of such platforms may not be a place for long and deep conversations but sometimes all you need is someone to say: ‘I hear you. I’ve been there. You’ve got this.’ Just sharing your writing world with others who know this kind of place, can often be what you need to overcome a black dog moment and get it back on the leash. Not everyone needs to be in therapy, but everyone needs to feel heard.

There will always be writers who prefer to go it alone and find no comfort in discussing writing or personal problems with others. That’s absolutely fine. I’m quite like that myself. But I also know that I have very strong coping mechanisms for dealing with my black dog, honed after decades of experience and a fair amount of formal study of psychology which has been immensely useful. I am good at chaining the bugger up. I don’t suffer in silence if I’m at breaking point; and nor should you. It may be that you are going to need some medical intervention, but trusted friends who understand your situation are more likely to help you come to that conclusion if that’s right for you. What’s certain is this: no one wants to find out you were struggling with inner demons long after it is too late to do anything about it.

Not too long ago, someone I knew for many years – considered by all of us as a happy-go-lucky kind of person and who never seemed to let life phase him – took his own life unexpectedly. From what I understand, no one saw it coming, not even those closest to him. Isolation due to covid had got to him and he kept it all inside. He was still very young and had everything to live for. It was one of the most distressing moments in recent years for me. You can’t help but think “if only” in situations like that. It seemed so unfair.

Not telling others when you’re struggling is actually one of the cruellest things you can do. I know it is hard – when the black dog comes to me, I tend to close down too. That’s why it is important to build your team during the good times. The fellow writers, the readers, the mentors and those you can sit down with over a cup of tea and say “you know, life is a bit shit right now” and have them know exactly where you’re coming from. Don’t forget to include this in your planning as you build your writing career. It is a much better option than alcohol and the gas oven.

Read all A Brief Guide to Writing here:

A Brief Guide to Writing: 1 – Introduction

A Brief Guide to Writing: 2 – Why you shouldn’t be a writer

A Brief Guide to Writing: 3 – Thinking like a writer

A Brief Guide to Writing: 4 – Budgeting income as a writer

A Brief Guide to Writing: 5 – Mistakes, editing and you

A Brief Guide to Writing: 6 – The Writer and The Black Dog of Doom

A Brief Guide to Writing: 7 – Feedback

A Brief Guide to Writing: 8 – What Happened to That Damned Turtle?

A Brief Guide to Writing: 9 – Instant Plots

Social Entrepreneur, educationalist, bestselling author and journalist, D K Powell is the author of the bestselling collection of literary short stories “The Old Man on the Beach“. His first book, ‘Sonali’ is a photo-memoir journal of life in Bangladesh and has been highly praised by the Bangladeshi diaspora worldwide. Students learning the Bengali language have also valued the English/Bengali translations on every page. His third book is ‘Try not to Laugh’ and is a guide to memorising, revising and passing exams for students.

Both ‘The Old Man on the Beach’ and ‘Sonali’ are available on Amazon for kindle and paperback. Published by Shopno Sriti Media. The novel,’The Pukur’, was published by Histria Books in 2022.

D K Powell is available to speak at events (see his TEDx talk here) and can be contacted at dkpowell.contact@gmail.com. Alternatively, he is available for one-to-one mentoring and runs a course on the psychology of writing. Listen to his life story in interview with the BBC here.

Ken writes for a number of publications around the world. Past reviewer for Paste magazine, The Doughnut, E2D and United Airways and Lancashire Life magazine. Currently reviews for Northern Arts Review. His reviews have been read more than 7.9 million times.

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