If You Want to Write: Sharon’s Blog

A couple of times each month, I post short thematic reflections and writing suggestions on my blogsite for anyone living with serious or debilitating illness and other challenging life situations. Originally, I began my site as www.writingthroughcancer.ca) in 2006, inspired by my cancer experience and those who attended my first writing workshops.

In 2009, I was diagnosed with heart failure, a progressive condition which may have been the result of the radiation therapy I received a few years before. I was inspired by my doctor and the Canadian heart failure community to begin another blog, writingtheheart.ca, in the summer of 2018, focused on the lived experience of heart failure. But, the more writing groups I led convinced me that many of the prompts and themes I wrote about and posted were equally appropriate for anyone trying to make sense of serious illness or other life hardship. As I experienced again and again in the writing groups I continued to lead, writing about illness is writing about life.

Recently, I’ve merged my two blogs together into one, honoring the commonality of life questions and themes triggered by serious illness, trauma, unexpected loss or other hardship. Simply go to www.whenlifehurtswriting.ca to access the site. Either will take you to my current blog, now entitled When Life Hurts, Writing Can Help. I hope that these posts and prompts offer you motivation or inspiration to write and discover how writing can help us heal–just as it has for me and for the many men and women who have written with me over the years. As always, I welcome the comments and the experiences of my readers.

Best wishes,

Sharon