The day after I put my secret blog post together about the Children of Suicide, I got emotional backlash. I had thought I could write about other people’s trauma, throw in some psychobabble, and remain unaffected. But facing the Bogeyman isn’t like that–even if you think you are only doing a research paper on the literary imagery of bogeymen, their varying cultural forms and their psychological implications. We’ve all got a bogeyman. If you are a writer, the question is, “What happens if I let him out? Will it scare up my most important writing or send me into therapy?” (Answer: Both.)
What it did was push me to write more detail on my bogeyman–something I’d been afraid and ashamed to do. And once you’ve written something, you can go the next layer. Just don’t expect to feel no pain. Seven years after writing this, it still makes my stomach hurt. Only you as the writer can decide whether it is worth it to write the thing anyway:
http://gardenofmirth.blogspot.com/2006/01/living-in-your-head.html
