Write It Right About Anger – Joy Writing with Alice Orr. Anger is a tricky topic for many people. Anger is a tricky emotion. Writing anger is tricky too. Sometimes damned if you do. Sometimes damned if you don’t. Let’s face off about anger.
When Mornings Start with Emotion. Some days I wake up feeling Anger. I may not remember exactly why. I do remember how it feels to carry that state of mind inside me and may want to erase it immediately. But there are other considerations to consider. Especially for a writer.
Ann Lamott on the Value of Anger. In Grace (Eventually) Ann Lamott says. “It’s fine to know but not to say that anger is good. A bad attitude is excellent and the medicinal powers of shouting and complaining cannot be underestimated.”
The Value of Anger for a Writer. Ann Lamott gets it right – especially the part about it not being fine to express anger. She encourages Writing About Anger. So do I. Not everyone agrees. Not everyone makes it comfortable for the rest of us to agree.
Why We Hide Our Anger. When we are hurting our natural anger is often squelched. Our emotional discomfort meets with disapproval from those around us. Their disapproval admonishes us for Expressing Anger – even in our writing.
The Pressure to Stay Positive. Injured individuals are told they must be upbeat and hopeful at all times. They are told they invite trouble and bad outcomes by allowing their anxiety to show. This kind of repression causes more Emotional Discomfort – including for the characters we create.
Permission to Feel is Legitimately Positive. We must let ourselves and others feel whatever we need to feel. Which sometimes includes a dose of being pissed off. Embracing all emotions is key to embracing emotional health and embodying a healthy brain.
Harness Your Disgruntled Energy. Sometimes an outburst of pissed off energy is exactly the fuel that is needed to get you and your characters through a prickly patch or a bad day. You are Coping with Anger in Difficult Times by putting it to productive use of your own time.
Joy Write. Write about a situation where anger gave you the energy or motivation to get through a difficult experience. What were you able to accomplish with the help of that anger energy?
The Virtues of Positivity are Endlessly Espoused. Cliches abound. Keep your sunny side up. Look for the silver lining. Whistle a happy tune. We all spout versions of them. In my Workshops for Writers I say “Attitude isn’t everything but it affects everything.” Less rainbow-tinted wording but still basically “sunny side” “silver lining” “happy tune.”
Positivity versus Authenticity. Attitude may affect everything. But what about when your smile is a lie? What about when you shine your smile because others like your face better that way? What about when you smile because you feel you have to? Write It Right About Anger – Joy Writing with Alice Orr.
Joy Write. Recall a time when you felt pressured to hide your anger or “keep your sunny side up.” How did that affect you? Did you comply or rebel. Tell the story.
The Challenge of Maintaining Cheerfulness. Anger can gain its own momentum and feed itself. Cheerfulness is harder. You wake up in a good mood that drifts away. You try to keep it going but the effort is too difficult to sustain. Sometimes we sulk however that may be received. We choose between Emotional Discomfort and Disapproval.
Joy Write. Write about a morning when you woke up angry for no clear reason. How did that feeling shape your day? What did you notice about yourself and your interactions with other people? How did they react to your disgruntled self?
Facing Life’s Challenges and Challengers. Somebody says “Let me be perfectly honest with you.” My advice? Head for the hills. I wager they have not brought welcome news. Do not stop running until you are a far distance from unwelcome unsolicited challenges. How properly polite we are to call such presumption a “challenge” in the first place.
Writing as Release. A compensating truth. We are writers. We let it all hang out on the page – including our journal pages. We tell our stories however angry or disgruntled or prickly they may be. We are Expressing Anger in Writing. We are Writing Truthfully about Emotions.
Joy Write. Consider how language shapes our experience. How words like “challenged” and “upset” dilute the true intensity of feeling angry. Write an emotional scene using vivid, technicolor language to recreate the anger your character feels.
A Truth about Our Current World. Life has become a slog for many folks for many reasons. Pretending otherwise disrespects all of us who Live with the Anger. We dance with the devil. We struggle to keep in step. Are you Letting Yourself Feel Anger?
Choose What to Do with Your Truth. Tell your Truth in Writing. Publish your truth tales. Or hide them behind a toilet bowl. Or save that choice for another day. Do not be angry with yourself for your anger. Do not forget that there is Hope After Anger.
The Shifting Circle of Support. Anger and Relationships. Some support may drift away. They may need to nurse their own anger. They may need to rest from anger fatigue. Others will remain stolidly in place. There is hope in that. There is strength in that.
Joy Write. Reflect on the people who have stayed with you through the tough, angry times in your life. Make a list of those people. Choose one and write the story of that person’s support and loyalty to you.
Find Hope in Your Honesty. No matter what – you are still here and you are still you. There is hope in that. There is triumph in that. Keep on Writing Your Truth whatever may occur. Write It Right About Anger – Joy Writing with Alice Orr.
FYI – More Writing Prompts and Exercises that Write It Right About Anger.
- List the physical sensations, thoughts and behaviors a person experiences when angry. Write a paragraph using these details in the behavior of a fictional character. Write a paragraph using these details for your own behavior in a memoir piece.
- Choose a cliché about positivity (e.g. look for the silver lining). Rewrite it from the perspective and attitude of someone who is experiencing a moment or a period of anger. How do the phrase and its meaning change?
- Write a conversation between two characters. One is angry. The other insists on remaining positive. Let the tension between them play out in their dialogue.
- Set a timer for ten minutes. Write nonstop about a time you felt that your anger was not allowed or was being dismissed as inappropriate or irrelevant. Do not edit or judge. Just let the words come and write them down.
- Write two sentences. In one sentence a character tries to suppress their anger. In the other sentence the same character openly expresses their anger. Compare and contrast the two sentences.
- Describe anger using metaphors and/or similes. A metaphor example – Anger is a storm brewing behind my eyes. A simile example – Anger is like a storm brewing behind my eyes. Let your imagination fly. Do not judge or edit. Just write.
- Write a letter you will never send to someone or something that made you angry at some time in your life. Let the feelings flow. Do not censor your emotions.
- Start a Writing Habit. Set aside ten minutes a day to write about whatever emotion is strongest for you at the time – anger or hope or anything in between.
Keep on Writing whatever may occur. Alice Orr https://www.aliceorrbooks.com and https://aliceorr.substack.com/p/write-it-right-about-anger
Alice Orr. Teacher. Storyteller. Former Editor and Literary Agent. Author of 15 novels, 2 novellas, a memoir, and No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells.
Joy Write with Alice. https:://www.aliceorrbooks.com.
Follow Alice on Substack — https://aliceorr.substack.com/
Read Alice’s Novel. She writes it right about anger in A Time of Fear & Loving. Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 5. Available HERE.
Praise for A Time of Fear & Loving. “Alice Orr is the queen of ramped-up stakes and page-turning suspense.” “Warning. Don’t read before bed. You won’t want to sleep.” “The tension in this novel is through the roof.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.” “Budding romance sizzles in the background until it ignites with passion.” “The best one yet!”
Experience Alice’s Suspense Novel Series. Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series. Five intense stories of love and death and intrigue. Available HERE.
Praise for Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series. “Romance and suspense at its best.” “I highly recommend this page-turner series.” “Twists and turns, strong characters, suspense and passionate love.” “The writing is exquisite.”
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