Read My Story

Writing Exercises: Overhearing

2009-01-09T15:07:10Z

Here's a simple way to get your creativity flowing: If you can't think of a good first sentence, go to a coffee shop. Take a notepad and a pen or pencil. Take a laptop computer, if you're so blessed. As long as you have something to write with. Sit down nearby and listen to people talk.

For example, today, I heard two men talking. The older man wore jeans and a tweed suit jacket. He had graying hair and a yellow notepad, which he was not writing on. The younger man wore a nice white shirt, collared, with blue pinstripes. His hair was spiked up. On his left hand, he had a thick gold wedding band on his left finger.

The younger man said to the older man, "By July, I was using $12,000 a month."

Now what did he mean by that? He said it in earnest, clearly meaning to make some impression on the older man, although I can't say he did. So what was going on? Storytelling, obviously.

My first guess might have been drugs, but he seemed too clean-cut. No sickly pallor, no circles under his eyes. Of course, he could have been talking about a time before he was clean. Maybe he got his life together, got a wife, got a good degree and a fancy job that allowed him to buy those nice clothes.

Maybe, though, he was some kind of entrepreneur. Maybe he was using $12,000 worth of flour for his wife's cake shop. Or $12,000 worth of sheet metal for the roofing business he runs with his brother. The point being, I suppose, that not all drama is necessarily negative.

Even if you're writing memoir or nonfiction, writing exercises can help you get the creative wheel spinning. Try this out the next time you want to write.

Writing Exercise:

Go to a coffee shop. Take a notepad and a pen or pencil. Take a laptop computer. As long as you have something to write with. Sit down nearby and listen to people talk. Choose three random sentences you overhear. They should be different from one another. Now, write a short-short (500 words) in which these three sentences appear. Do not form the story around the people in the coffee shop whom you originally heard say the sentences.

Matthew's & Brad's Story

2008-08-28T16:20:56Z

My name is Sherri and I am a parent of two children: Brad (13) and Matthew (11), with severe emotional disturbance (SED). My oldest son, Brad, has been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

He required six psychiatric hospitalizations, had seven assaults, and three school suspensions before he was 12. His first hospitalization was at age six, and was the result of a serious suicide attempt, where he rode his bike in front of a car and was almost hit, stating he wanted "...to go live with Jesus so I can be happy."

Some of his hospital stays were back-to-back, and only for 5-7 days allowed. He sometimes needed more time to stabilize, but other times, the 5-7 days was all he needed to get stabilized and able to maintain at home and school--with community-based services. All levels of care have been (and will be) needed for Brad in dealing with his mental illness.

At different times he has needed different levels of care. I don't know how he would have made it through some very difficult times without all services along the continuum available for him.

I do know that because of the intense treatment, care and follow-up services he has received, we have now gone over two years without a hospitalization, and he is attending middle school. Closing state hospital beds would be disastrous for families needing that acute care, unless there are regional hospitals that can effectively treat both long- and short-term needs.

Funding for the Medicaid SED waiver and community- based services gives the support needed for children and families to remain in their own homes and stay out of hospitals as well as out of the juvenile justice system. the success of community mental health services is evident in the lives of the youth they serve.

An example is of my sons, in particular Brad, who recently received the President's education Award for outstanding Academic Achievement with the support of treatment and care he received from the center in our own community. Additionally, he has been appointed as the first youth member of the Kansas Governor's Mental Health Services Planning Council's Subcommittee on youth Issues. He is an example of how treatment allows individuals to remain in their own homes and communities.

This post is part of The Association of Mental Health Centers of Kansas, Inc. series The Story is Me.

The Story is Me

2008-08-26T16:28:40Z

Read My Story is proud to present our first series of writings based on hope and recovery. These stories (from real people) are presented in cooperation with the Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas.

The stories are taken from a book produced by the association, The Story is Me, and are reprinted here with permission from CMHK.

From the introduction:

"The good news about mental illness is that recovery is possible. Mental illness is estimated to affect one in five individuals in our country. They are neighbors, your co-workers, your family members, and friends. These are true stories, as written by the storyteller."

In the coming weeks, I will be posting the stories here on the site. Check back every few days for a new look into the healing power of writing. You can check out the first post in our series, Elizabeth's Story, by following this link.

"One of the most valuable things we can do to heal one another is to listen to each other's stories."
-Rebecca Falls

Elizabeth's Story

2008-08-26T16:13:39Z

25 years ago, I was at the peak of my career. A teacher at KU with two Master's Degrees, I had just earned a Fulbright scholarship. While working on my dissertation, I was diagnosed with mental illness, which made it impossible for me to continue in the program. I was lost and went to private therapists.

My illness was overcoming me. I felt so isolated. At the time, the "medical" model was widely used, therefore, I was not part of my treatment plan. I took several medications--some to counteract the side effects of others. I was a zombie. I was told I would never live on my own. All I had to look forward to was a nursing home or a state institution.

With much reluctance and warning from my outside treatment staff, who claimed I would fall between the cracks, I entered the program at my Community Mental Health Center. this was the turning point in my life. After a few visits, my case manger asked me to fill out a strengths assessment. This was the first time anyone had asked me what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

I was cautious and a bit bewildered. I thought the course of my life had already been determined. At first, I said that I wanted to continue living on my own. She wrote that down. She then asked me what else I wanted to do, and I said I would like to do some kind of work. Again, she wrote that down. My case manager referred me to my job support specialist at the center.

The Community Support Services gave me an outlet to socialize and I made friends. My new psychiatrist took me off the many medications that I had been taking for years. I began to feel alive again. I became a part of my treatment plan. I was told of possible side effects before I decided to take the medication or not. What was important was that the doctor at Bert Nash listened to me and helped me feel better. All bases were covered.

Today, I work for the School of Social Welfare at Kansas University as an independent contractor. I am a co-trainer for evidence Based Practices. I am on the Board of Directors at Bert Nash, a member of the Consumer Advisory Committee for the State of Kansas and the President of a new Consumer run organization (Cro).

I am enjoying my jobs, and no longer meet the requirements for hospitalization. As a matter of fact, I have not been hospitalized for six years due to the help I get at Bert Nash. I feel much better about myself and my involvement in the local community. With hard work and the help of the staff at Bert Nash, I now have a better quality of life.

This post is part of The Association of Mental Health Centers of Kansas, Inc. series The Story is Me.

Healing Through Writing

2008-08-23T21:02:20Z

What matters in life isn't material goods. Fame and fortune are hollow. What really matters, at the end of the day, is happiness. For some reason, America believes happiness is something we should maybe want, but not try to get, or not talk about. Often confused with money, power, or physical pleasures, happiness is something everybody wants and few people attain.

Bookshelves are heavy with quick turn around advice: "7 Steps to a Better You!"

No such plan works. I hate to sound cold, but this is true. Whatever the merits, nothing can change a life the way slow, steady mindfulness can. At the risk of being trite, hope and compassion are powerful tools. And, of course, the only person who can transform your life -- who can take the first steps on the road to recovery -- is you.

At the same time, healing through writing can become confused by those who use it as a tool. Prompts for therapeutic writing are often stilted and formal, advising writers to "Write what you know," "write from experience," and "write what you're feeling."

These are fine ideas; of course this is important! What you know, Reader, and what you feel, too. But the prompts miss the important point that, if you are overcoming adversity, what you know and what you feel will emerge organically from your writing.

There's no reason to force the subject. In time, issues will surface. They may be dealt with then. First, writing. Second, healing.

For those who follow this blog, I would like to suggest -- if you want to write about what you know, your memoir, your story -- that you check back, once a week, on Sundays. New prompts and suggestions will be made for writers. Tips and tricks, too.

If you're thinking about using the tool of writing as a path to healing, then I will say congratulations, and I will leave you with 5 writing prompts from John Gardner's The Art of Fiction. Remember, even though the book is the art of fiction, the same rules apply to fiction and to memoir, or non-fiction. True stories are governed by the same rules.

Take a simple event: A man gets off a bus, trips, looks around, in embarrassment, and sees a woman smiling. Describe this event, using the same characters and elements of setting, in five completely different ways (changes of style, tone, sentence structure, voice, psychic distance, etc.). You might try the story writing as Stephen King, William Shakespeare, or something similar. Make sure the styles are radically different. Otherwise, the exercise is wasted.
Write three effective long sentences, grammatically correct, each one at least a full typed page (250 words), and each involving a different emotion (anger, pensiveness, sorrow, hate, love, etc.). Purpose: control of tone in a complex sentence.
Describe a building as seen by a man whose son has just been killed in a war. Do not mention the son, war, death, or the old man doing the seeing; also do not mention darkness, rot, or other trite images. Then describe the same building, in the same weather and at the same time of day, as seen by a happy lover. Do not mention love, the loved one, the person doing the seeing, etc., just as before.
Describe and evoke a simple action (for example, sharpening a pencil, carving a tombstone, shooting a rat).
Write an honest and sensitive description (or sketch) of (a) one of your parents, (b) a mythological beast, and (c) a ghost.

On Writing & Therapy

2008-08-18T15:09:58Z

The Crawford County Mental Health Center (CMH) asked me to create the Read My Story program as an outgrowth of their programs. The original idea took shape around the writing and art of kids in the Challenger programs. The work would be sent to me and I would post in on the Internet.

My role so far has been largely technical. I suppose it is not incorrect to call me the webmaster, whatever that means, of this page. In truth, the construction of a site like this is interesting to me, but not half as interesting as the writing posted. Now Read My Story is branching out.

After some discussion, Read My Story and CMH have decided to extend the mission of the site. Writing, after all, can be powerful therapy. The effects have been proven time and again. With the goal of bettering the community, which includes anyone who has a story of recovery to tell, I'm happy to announce three new facets of the site.

Memoirs dealing with addiction, recovery, and hope. Send it to us and, after review, we will post it. Writing can be powerful therapy. If you have a story to tell in connection with the mission of the Crawford County Mental Health Center, no matter where in the world you're from, feel free to submit it to us at ReadMyStory.CMH@gmail.com. Of course CMH retains the right to take down all posts and comments that do not comply with relevant policies.
Doctors & Writers will be a new interview series on the page: Questions & Answers with therapists, psychologists, clinicians, and writers. The goal of this series will be to explore the ideas of reflection, writing, and mindfulness in recovery. The format will be 5 questions for each interviewee.
Story Starters for those looking to write down their experiences. Prompts for memoirs, short stories, and tips on writing will appear on Read My Story. The story starters will be adapted from high school and college writing courses with an emphasis on form and narrative structure. An example might be taken from John Gardner's The Art of Fiction: "Exercise 28: Write a short story about some well-known, legendary figure."

We at CMH hope readers enjoy the new programs at Read My Story. Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks. Please direct questions and comments to ReadMyStory.CMH@gmail.com.

Tank, Age 13

2008-07-28T16:05:58Z

When I Feel...

2008-07-28T16:01:27Z

Naruto, Age 11

Tree

2008-07-28T15:57:30Z

Tree, Age 12

Big Red

2008-07-28T15:54:26Z

Big Red, Age 12

3-D Starfish

2008-07-10T01:42:59Z

by Spider-man

Rainbow Starfish

2008-07-10T01:39:11Z

Rickie, Age 5

Cars & Sailboats, Buses & Airplanes

2008-07-10T01:36:08Z

Scooby, Age 4

Car, Airplane, Balls, Foot, Big Brown Bear

2008-07-10T01:32:58Z

by Spider-man

Colored Shell

2008-07-10T01:29:37Z

Power Ranger, Age 4