Writing Trauma

Dark Psychology for Fiction Writers shows writers how to build dark characters without flattening them, write victims with agency, use objects, silence, language, memory, and pressure to deepen plot, and keep moral complexity clear. Across the chapters, an original story is gradually seeded and developed: The House That Whispered, a tale of a daughter returning home after her father’s funeral, a closed parlor, a mother’s careful version of the past, and a house full of objects waiting to be understood. By the end of the book, those seeds gather into a completed short story, showing how ...

He traced his friend's name on a cold stone wall. Then he told her everything. Standing before the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, an old veteran reaches back across centuries to tell his granddaughter the truth about where they came from. Not just a family history, but the story of an entire people built from the earth up, only to have it taken from them. The Acadians carved a life from wild coastland, built farms from saltwater marshes, and forged a culture entirely their own. But they lived between two empires, and that was a dangerous place to stand. When the English came, they did not come ...

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE Written in the form of a letter to his ailing father, this debut memoir from the bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook explores the complicated burden of caring for an abusive parent who is dying—here is Matthew Quick’s most...

A practical and inspiring guide to transformational personal storytelling, The Story You Need to Tell is the product of Sandra Marinella’s pioneering work with veterans and cancer patients, her years of teaching writing, and her research into its profound healing properties. Riveting true stories illustrate Marinella’s methods for understanding, telling, and editing personal stories in ways that foster resilience and renewal. She also shares her own experience of using journaling and expressive writing to navigate challenges including breast cancer and postpartum depression.

A neuroscientist explores how trauma impacts the brain, especially for women—and how we can learn to heal ourselves Everyone experiences trauma. Whether a specific harrowing event or a series of stressful moments that culminate over time, trauma can echo and etch itself into our brain as we...

Unlock the Power Within: Transform Your Life and Reclaim Your Voice with Coercive Relationships: Find the Answers You Seek. You didn't lose yourself all at once. It happened slowly, quietly, until the person you used to be felt like a stranger. This compassionate, clinically grounded guide gives survivors of coercive control the tools to understand what happened, reclaim their identity, and begin real healing. Jennifer C. Parker, a seasoned social worker and therapist, walks you through the patterns of emotional abuse, the trauma symptoms behind your confusion, and the proven path forward. ...

In "Beyond Survivor" Frayne offers his own history, hoping to help other victims of abuse find the courage and strength to seek help to triumph over it, and to increase awareness and education among the general public. Author Patricia A. McKnight, in her review of the book, says, “This expertly written book shows the path of standing strong and achieving what all mankind desires; retrieving the happiness once destroyed by the wicked. This collection of outstanding poetry and prose is a must read for all as inspiration to prevail against the challenges put forth in the battle to obtain our...

This “witty, humorous, and heartfelt“ (Cinelle Barnes) memoir navigates the tangled branches of Annabelle Tometich’s life, from growing up in Florida as the child of and a Filipino mother and a deceased white father to her adult life as a med-school-reject-turned-food-critic. When...

Walking with Wodan is the unflinching autobiographical testament of Freya Aswynn, one of the most influential and controversial figures in modern Northern Tradition and runic spirituality. Part life-history, part initiatory record, this book traces a journey forged through extreme adversity, institutional neglect, occult awakening, and lifelong devotion to Wodan/Odin as living spiritual force. From a brutal childhood in post-war Europe and years spent in state care, through early encounters with magic, witchcraft, and esoteric orders, to her central role in the revival of Germanic paganism ...

One in six women is the victim of sexual assault. Using her own hard-won wisdom, author Jen Cross shows how to heal through journaling and personal writing. Writing Ourselves Whole is a collection of essays and creative writing encouragements for sexual trauma survivors who want to risk writing a different story. Each short chapter offers encouragement, experience, and exercises.

“In the fairy tales about father–daughter incest—‘The Girl Without Hands,’ ‘Thousand Furs,’ the original ‘Cinderella,’ ‘Donkey Skin,’ and the stories of Saint Dymphna, patron saint of incest survivors—the daughters are all as you would expect them to be: horrified by...

Trauma and its effects can feel like a never-ending storm, and there's no safe harbor in sight from the thoughts and emotions that toss and turn so violently and unpredictably in your head. But healing is possible. Your brain can actually rewire these thoughts and emotions. And you can direct that powerful healing process through journaling.

Drawing on the mind-body techniques of somatic therapy, The Healing Sexual Trauma Guided Journal offers insightful writing prompts to help you explore your emotions, overcome internalized shame, and heal your traumatized nervous system.

'AHHHH I loved this thriller! Secrets, a manor, crazy weather, suspense, Scottish setting… It had me on the edge of my seat the entire time' Reader review She's run as far as she can. But danger is closer than ever… In the aftermath of tragedy, Callie has escaped to a writing retreat at an...

Poetry is not a puzzle for experts. It is a human skill. If you can breathe, you already have the first instrument. Poems That Breathe is a practical field guide for readers and writers who want poems that feel alive on the tongue and honest on the page. It treats poetry as presence, not performance. You will learn how breath shapes line breaks, how silence gives meaning, and how to build poems that stay clear without becoming flat. This book trains you to write with grounded images, clean sound, and purpose that holds up even when no one is watching. It also helps you avoid the common ...

Some secrets are too dangerous to tell and too dark to keep... When young Corianne Dempsey and her best friend, Rebecca, are approached by a stranger on their way to school, only one girl makes it home. When Rebecca turns up dead, Corianne's childhood ends abruptly. Growing up in the long shadow of this event, Corianne is now a conflicted young woman seeking solace in dangerous places. Her hauntingly-dark dreams begin crossing into waking life, hinting that the past she remembers may be a lie. Driven to make sense of what is happening, she returns to the only place she feels solid, the farm...

‘Profound, funny, clever’ Marian Keyes ‘Hilarious and heart-breaking’ Liane Moriarty ‘A big, delicious read’ Sierra Greer ‘An ingenious concept’ Libby Page ✨🕰️☂️✨🕰️☂️✨🕰️☂️✨🕰️☂️✨🕰️☂️✨🕰️☂️ On a bustling road in...

Reclaim your inner voice and find profound emotional safety with this gentle trauma recovery guide for complex PTSD. If you grew up in an unstable environment and learned to survive by disconnecting from your feelings, this calming audio experience provides a secure space to rebuild self-trust...

"An engaging read, particularly for cat lovers, and a promising debut." –Kirkus Reviews When Soviet tanks shattered the streets of Budapest, one girl's desperate flight across a frozen continent would cost her everything she loved. Some secrets survive when nothing else does. Forced to flee and navigate a brutal Cold War landscape, Vivie endures loss upon unimaginable loss until she surfaces alone in a new world, carrying a truth she swore never to reveal. The displacement and exile that follow reshape her entirely, quietly trading the life she was born for one she must build from nothing...

Jack’s Diary A novella by Damian Jay Clay “If I don’t write it, if I don’t say it, then it isn’t true.” Hidden behind an air vent, wrapped in plastic and shame, lies a notebook no one was ever meant to read. But Jack writes anyway. About his body, his silence, the bruises he’s told are love, and the God he’s told will never love him back. In the language of scripture, whispered desire, and unbearable confession, this raw, radiant diary traces one boy’s journey through religious guilt, abuse, awakening, and the impossible hope of being known. As Jack falls deeper into self-...