Express Yourself
The Healthy Way to Write About Pain
Ask the questions you were too busy, or scared, to consider in the moment
This is The Draft, an advice column about writing and life from Eileen Pollack, former director of the University of Michigan MFA Program. We’re here to answer your questions about storycraft, writing, and telling the truth in words.
Have a question? Share it with us.
Dear Draft,
I was sexually abused as a kid. My father was an addict. But how can I write about all that trauma without seeming to ask for pity — or feeling like I’m exploiting my pain to get published, the way I felt writing about my dad’s opioid addiction so I could get into college? Besides, what happens to my writing career when I run out of abuse and trauma? Is that all anyone has to write about?
Signed,
Not in It for The Pity
Dear Not in It,
Of course you’re not looking for pity! (Although I wish you had been spared all that pain you suffered growing up.) But you’re right to worry that if all you do is peel off your skin and splay yourself on the page like a dissected frog, your readers will wonder why you’re exposing your wounds, if not for their commiseration.
