7 Tips For Writing About Trauma By: Guest Column | June 16, 2015 / Writers Digest

http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/7-tips-for-writing-about-trauma?et_mid=760088&rid=239601190

I was 24 years old when my brother, my only sibling, died by suicide. Fresh out of a graduate program in literature, words were the way I made sense of my life. I decided that they were the only way I’d be able to make sense of my brother’s death.
Research has proven that writing about traumatic events, if done properly, can be beneficial. I spent nearly a decade working on a memoir about my brother’s suicide, our lives, and my grief. Here’s what I learned along the way:

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This guest post is by Kelley Clink. Clink is the author of A Different Kind of Same (She Writes Press, June 9, 2015) and is a full-time writer with degrees in literature from the University of Alabama and DePaul University. She is the winner of the 2014 Beacon Street Prize in Nonfiction and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She currently lives in Chicago with her husband. Connect with her at KelleyClink.com, at Facebook.com/kelleyclinkauthor or on Twitter @kelley_clink.

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1. Give Yourself Time

For the first two years after my brother’s death, all I could do was focus on daily life. Any time I tried to write about my brother, I felt worse. According to Harvard Health Publications, this is common. Dr. James W. Pennebaker, a researcher on the health benefits of writing about trauma, recommends people wait at least one or two months after a traumatic event occurs before writing about it.

2. Reach Out to Your Support Network

When I began writing about my brother, it felt like I was grieving all over again. I hadn’t told anyone what I was doing, so my husband, parents, and close friends didn’t know why I was suddenly more sensitive. After telling my loved ones about my project, I received the space and support I needed to deal with the difficult emotions that came up during the writing process.
[Want to land an agent? Here are 4 things to consider when researching literary agents.]

3. Write to Heal, Then Write to Publish

I knew from the beginning that I wanted to write a book, and that I wanted to share that book with the public. But the first and second drafts of my manuscript were just for me. If I’d written them with an audience in mind, I might have held back. I might have shut down. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to work through my grief. The first time you tell the story, tell it for you. Don’t show it to anyone, if you don’t want to. If your intent is to share the work with others, you can make edits with an audience in mind later.

4. Start Slowly

I began writing about my brother in short journal entries, just fifteen minutes a day. Small goals made the project feel more manageable. [Like this quote? Click here to Tweet and share it!]

5. Walk Away When You Need To

There were times during the writing of my memoir when my emotions became overwhelming. When that happened, I took a break—either by working on another part of the book or taking a few days off from writing completely.
[Memoir or Novel? 8 Issues to Think About Before Writing Your Own Story]

6. Be Patient and Gentle With Yourself

The work you are doing is hard. It’s not always going to feel good. It may take you a long time to complete. Be kind to yourself along the way. Treat yourself to long walks, naps, warm baths, strong cups of good coffee, or an extra chocolate chip cookie.

7. Work With a Mental Health Professional

If you don’t already have a therapist, get one. Writing about a traumatic event, even one that happened decades ago, is bound to trigger some complicated emotions. Some research suggests that writing about trauma is most beneficial when it focuses on meaning and understanding, rather than simply reliving the detail of the event. A mental health professional should be able to help you frame your experience in a way that encourages healing.

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If writing for your characters without the full experience she speaks of, find a loss, death, whatever trauma--your team lost and you REALLY WANTED THEM TO TRIUMPH. 

Pain is pain. Work with it, just change what it is in the story. Or not. 

Perhaps, someone is over the top sad or angry about that team loss--Cavs fan. But, it's still a real pain. And yet, maybe, your character is ALSO using it to hide a greater pain, a more fantastic, personal lost.

See? Work at it slowly and layer the feelings in and distill it until it's right.

_NS

SPOILERS: "Important" Rapes in OUTLANDER versus GAME OF THRONES series

SPOILERS: The psychopath male on hero male OUTLANDER is integral to the book and film characters of Jamie, Claire, and Black Jack and the further interactions between all three, between wife and husband, and to Jamie and future close male gay friends.

GAME OF THRONES was a total surprise because it's not in the books but a "Sansa replacement" Jeyne Poole was raped by their psychopath, but in the film series it's been since Season one when she was seen, 4 years absence doesn't make you FEEL for Jeyne like you would the real Sansa, whom you've seen yearly since the pilot episode.

Shock people. Tons of women have been raped and murdered and children too on GOT, and now you finally notice that it's not background NOISE, it's pain, with reverberations.

Ask Jamie, Claire, and Brianna.

http://www.inquisitr.com/2149308/outlander-boss-ron-moore-talks-surprising-reaction-to-sam-heughans-brutal-rape-scene-in-season-one-finale/

The Daily Beast: TV Characters That Vanished: ‘Mad Men’s’ Sal and Others with Loose Ends

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/30/tv-characters-that-vanished-mad-men-s-sal-and-other-television-characters-with-loose-ends.html

It’s been revealed that one of Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner’s wishes was to wrap up Sal’s storyline. Here are other memorable TV characters that disappeared without a trace.

As good as the Mad Men season finale was, it couldn’t possibly wrap up every storyline.

This week, Entertainment Weekly’s Anthony Breznican tweeted out a photo of one of Matthew Weiner’s production notes for Mad Men titled “Wish List: Things We Want to Deal With Before the Series Ends.” The list includes the question, “Sal – what happened to him?”—referring, of course, to Salvatore Romano, the closeted gay Art Director at Sterling Cooper who was fired in season three when he rejected the advances of Lucky Strike’s Lee Garner Jr.

Plenty of fans wondered the same thing as Weiner about Sal’s ending, and even bombarded AMC with letters calling for his return. Sal was popular not only because he gave us a peek into the way homosexuality was viewed in the 1960s (and he did it in a way that, in classic Mad Men style, wasn’t didactic or preachy), but also because he was a damn fun character to watch. Who could forget that Bye Bye Birdie dance?

His lack of a resolution was even more noticeable because a lot of people binge-watched Mad Men. While writers on shows in the past could make characters disappear season-to-season, relying on audiences forgetting minor characters over the summer months—when a whopping 62.3 million people worldwide subscribe to Netflix—means audiences have no problem remembering their favorite characters and holding writers to task for getting rid of them.    

In honor of Sal, here are some other characters that vanished forever off of shows without any satisfying resolution. Writers thought we wouldn’t notice? They didn’t anticipate Netflix and the nitpicky/obsessive zeal of rabid fans who won’t—ever—let it go.

1. Mandy Hampton on The West Wing (Moira Kelly)

Based on the real-life political advisor Mandy Grunwald, this loud-mouthed broad fearlessly talked back to everyone (except POTUS) in Season 1, and was supposed to serve as Josh’s love interest. Mandy got into some hot water after a memo leaked that she had written criticizing the Bartlet administration (before she started working for them), and after that her character began to fade away. She appeared in fewer and fewer episodes as Season 1 went on, and was completely written out of season 2 with no explanation.

2. Valery on The Sopranos (Vitali Baganov)

Probably the most famous unresolved character in television history, the Russian gangster Valery in season three’s “Pine Barrens” managed to flee from Christopher and Paulie after they shot him in the head. While creator David Chase could not understand why anyone gave “a shit about this Russian,” he did admit after a lot of prodding that the fate he envisioned for him was that he passed out, was discovered by some Boy Scouts, and eventually shipped back to Russia with massive head trauma. Chase’s explanation doesn’t really clear up how Valery managed to escape without a trace (or who stole Paulie’s car), but it’s better than nothing.

3. Dr. Erica Hahn on Grey’s Anatomy (Brooke Smith)

Dr. Hahn and Dr. Callie’s lesbian relationship was praised for its realism and emotional honesty, but that wasn’t enough to save Dr. Hahn’s character from extinction. Though she was a major presence on the show, she never received any ending at all. She simply heads to her car in an episode of Season 5 and is never seen again. Creator Shonda Rhimes, responding to the confusion and anger audiences felt about this casting change, stated that Smith was “obviously not fired for playing a lesbian.”

4. Betsy Putch on The Mindy Project (Zoe Jarman)

Kaling’s recently canceled show endured a lot of casting bloodshed during its three-season tenure, and there were plenty of characters who came and went without any clear cause, but Betsy’s was perhaps the hardest to take. She was naïve, sure, but she added a nice flavor of sweetness to this otherwise quasi-cynical show.

5. Stuart Minkus on Boy Meets World (Lee Norris)

The annoying nerd literally vanished into thin air in the episode “I Dream of Feeny,” when Cory and Shawn wished him away. He was never heard from again until the last episode of the series when, in a kind of a wink to the audience, he returns and tells Cory he was just in a different part of the school this whole time. His character now appears on the Disney channel spinoff series Girl Meets World as the father of one of the schoolmates and the CEO of the corporation Minkus International. 

6. Cousin Oliver on The Brady Bunch (Robbie Rist)

Unlike other characters on this list, Cousin Oliver was liked by almost no one. He was weird, not funny, and committed the worst kinds of sins you could on The Brady Bunch, like ruining Marsha’s painting and unweaving Carol’s afghan. His most significant contribution to the television arena was becoming the namesake to the tendency TV writers have for introducing child characters late into the series of a show in a desperate attempt to save it from cancelation.

7. Charlie on Girls (Christopher Abbott)

While we (kind of) were told what happened to Charlie—he and Marnie bought ingredients to buy grilled pizzas, came back to the apartment, and he told Marnie that he never loved her—his ending was far from rewarding. And this was not entirely the writers’ fault. Christopher Abbott, the actor who played him, decided that he no longer wanted to be part of the show. But his leaving forced the writers to dredge up the depressed-Marnie storyline for yet another season.

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NEW EBOOKS/BOOKS from AUTHOR Neale Sourna and PIE: Perception Is Everything

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Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs - Stay

THE ORIGINAL by the man who wrote and sung it. Inspired by a date with a 10pm curfew. He was fifteen, recorded 7 years later. The shortest top hit in US ever. 1 minute 50 seconds. Sweet and to the point and 8 million copies later by all the collective covers.

Laurell K Hamilton: Author answers on character writing. Dead Ice: Rafael

http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/2015/05/dead-ice-rafael/

Third in the series leading up to Dead Ice, I almost made it Anita, but in the end I decided we’d go with Rafael, the Rat King. 

 
Raphael, drawn by Bret Booth
 
Question: When are we going to see Rafael on stage more in the books?

Answer: June 9, 2015 in Dead Ice!
 
Secrets to Share: Once I decided to have wererats in the first Anita Blake novel, Guilty Pleasures, Rafael just sort of appeared on paper.  I don’t remember making notes, or trying to create him.  He just walked on stage.  He was handsome, Hispanic, a great leader doing his best under difficult circumstances to protect his people.
 
Question: When are we going to learn more about how Rafael runs the wererats?

Answer: See above, in Dead Ice.
 
Secrets to Share:  Rafael told me how he was running his group.  I had to work at figuring out how various other shapeshifter groups were organized, but not the wererats.  Rafael was even a good leader in my subconscious.  The only thing that I had to “invent” was the crown-shaped brand on his arm as the mark of kingship.  That I worked at, but for the rest he’s always been very easy to write.
 
Question: Are Rafael and Anita a thing/an item?

Answer: If you mean have they had sex together, then yes.

Secrets to Share: No one ever asks if Anita is dating Rafael, they don’t ask if they’re lovers, because that can just imply sex and you all saw them have sex on stage, so that’s a given. But lover can also imply a more emotional involvement, and I don’t think we’re expecting that between them.  

So, what are Anita and Rafael to each other? Both have risked their safety, even their lives, to help each other.  

They are allies, and have become friends.  He is honored and powerful food for Anita’s arduer.  In Dead Ice we learn more details than ever before about how they work that. 

Sneak Peek from Dead Ice:

His mouth was buried tight against Rafael, his throat working convulsively as he swallowed.  I had a moment to think he was drinking blood from the wound, because that was what it meant when I saw Jean-Claude or Asher swallow like that.