Verified by 
Key points
- Mental illness can make the process of writing more challenging.
- In writing, mental health issues can be managed just as in other aspects of life.
- Although often challenging, writing with and about mental illness can bring great satisfaction.
Writing is tricky. It's difficult for anyone to maintain the awkward waltz between our thoughts, our writing implements, and the words on the page. So one can only imagine the chaos that can result when mental illness derails this delicate dance. I've recently been revising a short mystery novel for publication, and, throughout the whole process, I've been vividly aware of how continually managing my obsessive-compulsive disorder impacts my craft.
Overcoming Writer’s Block
The biggest hurdle to overcome is one of the most challenging for anyone trying to write — that toxic blend of anxiety, inertia, perfectionism, and procrastination commonly known as writer’s block. A blank page is a formidable obstacle for any writer, but mental disability can make things significantly more challenging. Depression casts the whole endeavor in a shroud of futility; anxiety second-guesses every word on the page. I suspect anyone who experiences mental illness has a story about its interference with written composition.
OCD and obsessive symptoms can aggravate writer's block, and there's one bit of advice I believe can apply to anyone struggling with creative output and mental disability: You absolutely must put words — any words — on that page. Any words at all. Even a paragraph, even a sentence, even if turns out to be godawful. Because a godawful paragraph can be reworked into something better, and may even contain a little nugget of value — a clever metaphor, an insight into a character, even just a few words that sound good in sequence.
The objective here is to establish a positive feedback loop where creative output — any creative output — is worth lavish celebration. So set the most modest goal imaginable, steel yourself for the mighty endeavor of writing exactly four complete sentences, and then treat yourself to a hot bath and a pint of ice cream. If your initial standards for productivity are that low, and the positive reinforcement so ridiculously high, you can build from that to establish a more sustainable writing routine.
Facing the Challenge of Writing About Mental Illness
Once you've built up some momentum with your writing, you may encounter another, potentially more dangerous complication: Writing about mental illness sometimes causes us to elaborate and expand on it, exacerbating the illness in the process. I know we've all had those frustrating moments when trying to talk through our negative thoughts (alone or with others) backfires and makes things worse; an obvious example is when a friend tries to convince you to cheer up and you end up arguing yourself into an even more depressed mood.
Writing about mental illness has similar dangers. In Such Stuff As Dreams: The Psychology of Fiction, Keith Oatley observes that composing and revising a piece of writing can simulate experiencing its contents: "a writer can read what she or he has written, and the writing will start up and sustain for him or her, the dream with its emotional aspects." Transcribing the symptoms of mental illness can expand a short, discouraging conversation into a lengthy discourse; it can take vague anxiety and externalize it, giving it greater form and power. Suddenly, you've stopped arguing with mental illness, and you've started collaborating with it. Writing about mental illness can sometimes become a conduit for mental illness. If writing is making your symptoms worse, then you absolutely need to put down your work for a while.
Another important point to clarify — in "A Message to Creative Young People," I wrote about the dangerous cliché that pain inspires greatness, that mental illness somehow allows artists to create work that is "deep," "profound," "raw," or "truthful." This idea is nonsense. Mental illness does not create great writers; if a writer produces some exceptional work on the subject of mental illness, well, that's because skilled writers can write well about any subject they choose. If you find something painful to write about, there's still no guarantee your efforts will produce worthwhile results. I'm sure you've been told that you're more than your mental illness, and this applies to writing as well. Don't let illness define your creativity.
Requesting and Processing Feedback
My final bit of advice applies when you're finally ready to share your work with others and get feedback. This is always a little intimidating, but mental disability can add a further complication: An attempt to illuminate the psychological landscape of mental illness is open to misinterpretation by neurotypical readers. Such misinterpretations can range from being mildly confusing to profoundly demoralizing. As a personal example, I once workshopped a story that attempted to depict a realistically depressed narrator, based on my own experiences; my instructor and classmates assumed my character was "crazy" and "hallucinating everything" and gleefully tore the whole story to shreds.
Thankfully, that kind of malice is rare, but you should be aware that readers who do not have a personal, internal perspective on mental illness may not have the context to understand your work, and the miscommunication that results can be frustrating and demoralizing — especially if you don't want to disclose your condition to your readers. Sometimes the best thing to do is to state upfront that you're attempting to write a character with a specific mental disability — whether or not you explain that you share this disability is up to you — and ask them for specific feedback on whether the character’s symptoms are effectively conveyed. You might still get some insensitive or misguided comments, but generally, if you clarify your intentions right off the bat and indicate that you sincerely want feedback to improve the work, people will be sympathetic and eager to help.
While mental illness can make writing somewhat more complicated, the challenges can be managed just as in any other area of life. It's not always easy, and the way that mental disability compounds the difficulties of the writing life can sometimes feel overwhelming. But I truly believe that, if you have something to say about living with disability, you owe it to yourself to try to get it on the page. Even if that's as far as it goes, even if you never share your writing with another living soul — that's still an accomplishment to be proud of.
Copyright, Fletcher Wortmann, 2021.
References
Keith Oatley, Such Stuff As Dreams: The Psychology of Fiction. Wiley-Blackwell, Malden MA. 2011. p. 14.
