by
Zanna Mackenzie
When I was asked to contribute to WWBB's theme on
Confessions of A Writer lots of ideas whizzed through my mind and I spent a while debating what I wanted to
confess about.
The fact that when I’m writing, everything else (well,
almost everything) gets neglected, especially the housework, was one confession
possibility - and very true!
As was the fact that I have burnt many a meal by not paying
attention to what I’m doing because my thoughts are caught up in character
dialogue and plot points for my latest work in progress.
What I have decided to confess though is that, I think, writing
helps to keep me sane. All my
life I’ve been prone to nerves, worry and anxiety which has affected me in my social life as well as in my career.
I have tried hypnosis, meditation, aromatherapy, mineral supplements (magnesium
and calcium are supposed to aid and calm the nervous system I had read) as well
as self help books, all with varying degrees of success.
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Years ago I used to write and enjoyed it, then,
disillusioned with feedback on some of my work, I gave it up. Last year,
encouraged by my husband, I began to write fiction again, re-editing two of my
books and daring to send them off (for the first time) to a publisher for
consideration. Within a few months both books had been accepted and I was on my
way to becoming a published author. So I began to take my writing seriously,
fitting it in around my day job, allocating time to work on my next books. My creativity flowed and I found I had loads
of ideas, characters evolving, plots all fighting to be written down, snippets
of dialogue to make notes on, and books to plan. As my creative mind came to
life, in direct contrast, my state of anxiety diminished. It seems as though, for me, being creative and putting my mind to work
on all these books, plots, characters etc meant my mind no longer had time to
dwell on creating anxiety and worries.
Creativity has long been recognised as a way to help with stress,
anxiety and mental health issues and, for me, my confession is that writing
truly does help to keep me sane. For anyone out there with anxiety issues I
would say try getting creative!
For help and support with anxiety issues the following
website is a great resource: http://www.anxietyuk.org.uk/
