Writing doesn't seem to be prescribed by doctors and psychiatrists. But it is a powerful and relatively cheap tool to use in the armoury of activities that might show you how to improve your mental health.
Why write?
You know how it goes. You’re concerned about your mental health and you’re worried that the cares of life might overwhelm you.
I’ve been in the same position, and indeed when I was diagnosed with late-onset bipolar disorder I had several lengthy stays in hospital.
There was a lady there who taught us yoga two mornings a week, and she used to say “If it worries you, get it out on paper.”
Screenwriting
Well, eventually I followed her advice and I began to write screenplays. My first scripts were terrible, but as I progressed they got better and better, until now one of them has been optioned by a producer and has a realistic chance of being filmed and hitting the big screen.
You only need two tools to help you realise your screenwriting dream. The first is some screenwriting software that will take the angst out of formatting your script. Screenwriting software is a must-have because readers and producers use it as their first-stop filtration process: if you can’t be bothered to invest in screenwriting software and format your script properly, why should anyone take you seriously?
It's so important, it’s worth the investment. There are quite a few screenwriting software packages out there, but the best and most authoritative is FINAL DRAFT.
The next crucial thing is to find a script consultant (not your mom!) to review your script and teach you how to improve your writing. There are numerous script consultants out there, some better than others and some more expensive than others. My recommendation is to work up a relationship with LA-based SCREENCRAFT and take it from there.
ScreenCraft also hosts numerous scriptwriting competitions where you can enter and evaluate the quality of your script against the competition.
As I say, my scriptwriting career is potentially set fair, and I try to write scripts for up to two hours each day. I maintain this limitation to make sure I improve my mental health so as not to put too much pressure on myself; and also to safeguard the quality of my writing because I find if I write for too long my writing standard soon collapses.
Blogging
A second way for me to get it all out on paper is to write a blog. The result is the blog you are reading now – The Succesity Blog from Robert Porter.
I love the discipline it takes to write a blog. Basically, you have to turn up twice a week with some article ideas and write for your blog. Ideally, your blogs will be SEO-optimised. This is all essential if you want it to grow. The Successity Blog by Robert Porter focuses on a subset of personal development and self-improvement which includes wellness and mental health, screenwriting, films & film reviews, and cats.
Arguably cats shouldn’t really be a focus for the Successity Blog, but perhaps counter-intuitively cats can play a part as emotional support animals, and surveys have demonstrated that they are good for mental health. Accordingly, they are one way you can discover how to improve your mental health.
If you’re interested in blogging, there are plenty of resources online, including a portal operated by the UK mental health charity MIND where you can submit blogging ideas to MIND for publishing on the MIND mental health blog.
Two “must visit” sites from the blogging perspective are SMARTBLOGGER.COM and ADAMENFROY.COM. I obtained my content writing and SEO strategy certifications with SmartBlogger, and I found Adam Enfroy’s advice to be equally fundamental to an understanding of how to blog well and effectively.
Books and ebooks
Finally, it is feasible that you might want to record your mental health experiences in a non-fiction book. It’s easy to self-publish now as a paperback and an e-book with Amazon KDP, but ideally, you should invest in the services of a copyeditor and proofreader before you publish. You also need to be mindful of the laws around publishing such as libel and copyright (the same applies to blogging, too).
For myself, I have written a 60,000-word manuscript about my mental health and its intersection with screenwriting, which I intend to publish in the Summer of 2023. I found the process of writing it both stablising and extremely cathartic.
So bear writing a mental health memoir in mind. But remember that you have to be honest and reveal aspects about yourself that you might not otherwise be inclined to do.
Sharpen your pencil and go to it
So, there we have it. Screenwriting, blogging and e-books are just three of the ways you might be able to demonstrate how to improve your mental health (by Writing in 2023).
Perhaps you hadn’t a clue until now about how important writing might be to a mental health recovery. But after reading this article, now you do.
There are many different types of writing, not just screenplays, blogs and e-books. You might want to write a novel, or a collection of poetry, for instance. The key is to get writing.
And if you have difficulty brainstorming writing ideas and have writer’s block, then you could do worse than read Julia Cameron’s book THE ARTIST’S WAY.
There’s a writer’s world out there for you which could well show you how to improve your mental health.
So sharpen your pencils and go to it. There’s nothing to lose.
And nothing to fear except fear itself.
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