Writing Mental Illness
Writing Mental Illness
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Long before and long since Sylvia Plath wrote The Bell Jar, even long before and long since Nellie Bly’s muckraking journalism, people have been writing about mental illness and their experiences in the mental health system. In a culture that often says, “You’re just crazy,” writing about such experiences can be difficult.
Because people who experience mental illness participate in a system so far removed from “regular” life, knowledge of that system can be hard to shape into any sort of credible story. In this online class we will study texts written by those who have been in the system, glean strategies for writing about our own experiences with mental illness, and discuss why we write about mental illness. The class is self-paced and includes 6 lessons.
Each lesson includes an mp3 lecture, a reading, and two writing exercises; I’ll provide feedback on all exercises and be available via email to answer questions and discuss your work.
About Writing Mental Illness
Writing Mental Illness is a creative writing workshop for people who have experienced mental illness in some way; perhaps they’ve received a diagnosis, or a partner or family member has.
With Credibility and Coherence
Writing Mental Illness explores techniques to tell a story about mental illness with credibility and coherence. Writing that tells how it really is living in this culture and experiencing mental illness is the goal of this course. By creative writing I mean writing that has as its first aim to be of literary quality. Students may or may not wish to publish their work, but they have a belief in writing as an art form.
Building Community
These skills are perhaps helpful to individual healing, however are not meant as therapy or as a means to explore individual pathology. They certainly are a way to produce writing that educates people about mental illness to change our culture and bust stigma. I also see writing about mental illness as a way to build community, both within the mental health culture, and between it and the dominant culture.
Frequent Questions
Will I have to be available at certain times?
No. All interaction is done through email and the forum. This allows for work to be done when it is most convenient.
When and how do I receive the course materials?
After you pay you will be given a link from where you can download the entire course.
How long can I take to complete the course?
You have six months in which you can receive feedback on your writing from me. You can of course continue to work on your own after this time.
Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions.
Pricing
While the course is a commitment of time and money it is an exceptional value. The cost of the course for six months access is $500.
