How Authors Writing Heavier Stories Manage Their Mental Health
In the middle of research, author Terry Wells-Brown had to step away from her story. She’d interviewed a district attorney in charge of human trafficking for her book, but in the process of learning about the topic, it became too much to write about. She realized she needed to take a break before she could return to the page for her own well-being.
Writing means diving into your story, but writing a high-stakes story with dangerous situations, intense emotions, and dark themes can take an unexpectedly high toll on an author’s mental health. When Elise Hoffman wrote intense scenes, like Wells-Brown, she also needed breaks to “recenter” herself, she says.
But it’s not just the scenes and emotions themselves that can cause mental stress. Holding ourselves back from stories we want to tell can also be taxing. Joanna Penn, an author, podcaster, and business owner, identified this kind of pain in her book titled Writing the Shadow. Self-censorship and fear of judgment can hold authors back from tapping into the power of their darkness, she writes. Author Holly Roberds was concerned about writing a very dark story, but eventually she stopped worrying about how it would be received and just wrote it. “When I shed the judgment of what I was writing and allowed myself to follow the pull, I was SO joyful,” she writes. “I needed to give myself permission to explore that space I wanted to explore. The real pain was judgment of what I wanted to express.”
Although dark content can be difficult to write, filtering dark, intense, or scary elements of reality through a fiction lens is one way to sort through complex feelings. Authors Megan Linski and Dahlia T. Drake both identified current events as sources of stress that they could process as they wrote their books. Linski says, “My mental health is affected by the condition of the world, and processing that darkness needs to go somewhere, so I comprehend the world's problems by getting them out of me and onto the page.”
The darker themes author K.G. Reuss includes in her books have also proved to be cathartic. “It's easy because I've personally been through it,” Reuss says. “I can channel those memories and feelings and use them to drive the depth of the story. After I finish them, I feel satisfied because I know my FMC [female main character] is going to come out on top.”
Although there is a lack of scientific research on the phenomenon, authors whose work has been weighing on them can identify an increase in general anxiety, restlessness, or malaise within themselves, as well as an avoidance of the darker writing. Others report somatic symptoms, such as writing with a clenched jaw or tight shoulders. Friends or family members may also notice these changes. Whenever there are increased signs of stress, it’s a sign that something needs to change, and noticing how you are feeling is a major way to monitor any impact dark content is having.
When the darkness weighs heavily, Hoffman will “watch a happy movie, read a fluffy romance, [or] watch cat videos” between writing intense scenes, she writes. Author Ivy Nelson does the same but finds that “keeping in mind how the scene … drives the plot or engages readers” in her book is also helpful. Kristen Gandy alternates writing lighter and darker books to maintain her equilibrium. Other stress relief techniques, such as walking in nature, exercise, therapy, or taking time away from the work can help authors cope with the stressors dark content can bring.
In the long term, however, continuing a certain series or genre may not always be worth the cost to your mental well-being. Author Meg Jolly says, “I had to quit a pen name because it was mentally tanking me.” She loved the characters, but upon deciding to quit, she felt a wave of relief that told her it was the right decision.
Writing dark subjects can be rewarding as well as challenging. But paying attention to how you are feeling and listening to your gut can help you do it while maintaining your mental health.
Jen B. Green