The Blog · Week 4
You Are Safe
This week is about permission. Permission to remember wrong. Permission to write it anyway.
This week is about permission. Permission to remember wrong. Permission to write it anyway.
Writing as survival does not require a perfect timeline. It requires survivors who show up anyway.
Trauma isn't a watch. It doesn't keep time the way we want it to. I have literally no idea what days my abuse happened when I was younger because it happened so many days. Most days. Some of them blur. Some of them are sharp glass. People who are used to getting gaslit can sometimes be masters at gaslighting themselves. I know I am.
My timeline might be off. My timeline is almost certainly off. And for a long time, I thought that meant I couldn't write about it, because how do you write a story when you don't remember every detail?
In the space I am building, we give ourselves permission to write what we do remember and to not feel like the details left out compromise our narrative. To not feel like other people's memories of these moments are more valid.
If we are honest about the gaps, about the blurs, and tell the story of what we do remember and what it felt like to be in these moments, then we have done the necessary work.
If you put 3 people in the same room and give them the same experience, they will all tell that story slightly differently in the aftermath. Because we all have different bodies, histories, emotions, and relationships with the space and the people in it before we encounter the experience. All 3 of those stories are valid. We can do research afterward to find any facts we don't remember, but don't let anyone gaslight you out of your emotions or your point of view.
What's a story you've been told you're remembering wrong?
what I'd tell my younger self:
what would you say to your younger self?
This is a free writing workshop for survivors and anyone else writing trauma who needs a safer way in.
Does writing trauma ever feel like walking into a storm with an umbrella that immediately inside-outs?
This free series helps you de-umbrella, de-icicle your body, de-emergency your system, and write. This is trauma-informed writing in practice.
Four Saturdays @ 11am PT on Zoom. Come to any or all.
May 16 — Haunted House Costume Party: Writing Through Persona
May 30 — Your Grocery List May be an Elegy: Writing Through Forms
June 13 — Soundtrack Your Way into a Spell: Writing Through Music
June 27 — Haunting Through the Ghost of You: Writing Through the Second Person
No pressure to hit any word count or share work. We are not content machines. We have bodies. Moods. Tuesdays.
COMMUNITY PLAYLIST: THE SONG THAT MAKES YOU THE MAIN CHARACTER
Somewhere on your playlist there's a song that protagonists you. The song that themesongs you into the spotlight like you are a lounge singer in Twin Peaks who just had an excellent cup of coffee.
When I lived in Glasgow, I used to loop Patti Smith's Gloria over and over as I interpretive danced myself to campus. I was Gloria. Glorious.
Nothing like tap dancing down city streets in sneakers. Play your song and dance like you are Dick Van Dyke for everyone to see.
Songs contributed by Instagram followers. Follow me @erikjfuhrer to contribute to future weekly playlists.
You are safe here.