Emotional Rescue

By guest blogger Roz Wilson

The term “emotional rescue,” coined by my new friend and author of Fear of Writing, Milli Thornton, sounds like a real remedy that I am in desperate need of. I’ve been looking for a great excuse to write without restraint and with Attitude, Baby!

I feel the power already.

I attended the Fear of Writing Clinic designed by Milli just for something to do. I did not think it would inspire me to have fun with my writing. But it did and then some! Before this workshop I forced myself to write, now I am doing it freely. It really did spark my creativity and actually put me on the path to the emotional rescue that she describes on pg. 13 of her book.

I’m journaling thoughts and feelings that help me to stay focused on my mission to complete the book I started years ago. Journaling has motivated me to keep on expressing myself, and the exercises that I’m working on keep me going!

(Editor’s note: The exercises Roz refers to there are the 112 Fertile Material writing prompts from Fear of Writing that she learned to use at the workshop.)

This emotional rescue, to me, means to write without rules and regulations. I can be myself and say whatever I want to. I do not have to answer to anyone. I have the freedom to create what I want and experiment with new and fresh ideas. There was no criticizing or critiques allowed at the workshop—that was the truly liberating thing.

I feel a sense of empowerment like nothing else I’ve tried. Depression, anxiety, writer’s block and procrastination are a thing of the past for me. The best example is the journal I’ve started and lists of descriptive phrases and sentences I can refer to when working on my main project—the book that I am going to finish.

Roz and her husband on their 25th wedding anniversary

Roz Wilson is a published poet who aspires to finish a novel based on her mother’s life. She’s a wife and mother who, in 2000, went back to Youngstown State University to receive her liberal arts degree. She enjoys writing, art and nature.