Writing While Happy By T.A. Stanley

Everyone writes for different reasons and each person’s creativity comes from a different place. Personally, much of my writing is focused on the trauma I have survived. It is not always a fun task to consider these past traumas and how they effect my life, but I have found a lot of healing through writing about them and sharing what I’ve written with a larger audience. I can’t be sure that I will ever fully be healed or that there will ever be a time when I have fully mined all there is from these experiences, but I do now that recently I have not felt their weight as much. I am, in fact, pretty happy right now, which is a strange occurrence.


Like many people I have my ups and my downs, and I would not say that I am mostly down, only that I am mostly average and sometimes depressed. After a fairly severe bout of depression this summer, it is strange to feel so light and excited for possibilities in my life. I am still triggered at times, I am still moved and affected by it, but it is beginning to feel more distant. But just as I begin to feel more whole, complete, satisfied, I do wonder sometimes if I will find more difficulty in writing from this place. So much of my writing is wrapped up in my own experience, but how interesting is it to write about enjoying life?

It is a new challenge, a new adventure, but I feel that I am up to it. I am not done yet with writing about my trauma. I still have a ways to go towards healing, and I’m sure it may creep up in ways that are yet undiscovered and unexpected. But even as I know these things, I also know that there will be other things to write about – maybe some that are not so critically personal. I wonder what it will be like to write from a place of joy—how will people receive it? Will they notice? I am excited to find out.

What is everyone else’s experience with this? Do you find it easier to write from a place of joy or depression? Do you find your writing changes depending on your mood? Do you worry that you have not suffered enough to write about anything?