Coping With Creative Writing

'How creative writing can help you through life's hardest moments' is a thoughtful and inspiring TED talk by writer Sakinah Hofler. Hofler "makes the case for writing as a tool to help you process difficult memories and reclaim the power they may hold," asking viewers to recall a time they experienced challenges or situations in which they didn't speak up when they wish they had.

Exploring creative writing as a powerful coping mechanism that is not only therapeutic but also artistic, the speaker encourages her audience to uburden themselves from past traumas by sharing these experiences on paper. She shares an exercise she worked on with students who were not professional writers, citing that writing helped the group "un-silence things they've been keeping silent."

She also breaks down her creative writing process with three key steps including a quick writing brainstorm session where writers ask themselves to come up with 10 scenarios where they saw or experienced something and stayed silent when they wish they hadn't. They must then narrow down these scenarios into a top three that are especially notable or difficult to face, ending with a longer writing session where they outline details, order of events and how they felt during these difficult times.