Writing can help us practice gratitude
on finding the multifaceted power of our craft
It’s hard to feel grateful these days. It’s hard to feel hopeful. It’s hard to look at the world and not feel disappointed and disillusioned. It’s hard to wake up and assign meaning to our day when looking at the news headlines quickly makes any amber of hope flicker out into dust.
But I love a challenge. Scorpio sun that I am, the moment someone tells me I can’t do a thing that’s when I’m going to do it harder. So when I wake up and the world offers me misery, when I’m hoping for blue oceans and instead it points to the swamp, I pull out my magnifying glass and set off to find life breeding in the muck.
Practicing gratitude in times like the ones we’re currently living in can feel like looking for life in the muck. It can feel like looking for silver linings when the sky is overcast with clouds that promise a night of relentless storms filled with thunder. But building a gratitude practice is something that, when honed, can come in handy in times like these.
The issue with practicing gratitude is that it sounds so easy—and much like with writing, it’s easier said than done. In theory, it sounds like it’s something you just need to say and your life will be radically changed. But saying “I’m grateful for [blank]” rarely has any effect on our outlook or our lives, especially if we tend to lean towards pessimism. For gratitude to become a useful tool, there needs to be intention. So much of what we say on a daily basis lacks intention. But if you’re a writer you know: There are words. And then there are words. Things we say offhandedly and things we say with our whole chest.
The other problem is that we tend to get caught up on big-picture issues. Again, much like with writing. In my case, I fail to move forward with novels when something in the bigger picture isn’t working. I’m always happiest when I’m getting caught up in the details, in the feelings of a character, or when I’m creating the nuance that’s going to potentially resonate with the reader.
So when I get stuck writing the next scene, when I overwhelm myself because I keep thinking of the grand scope of the story instead of breaking the story down into moments, I take a step back. I look at the scene through a microscope. What object in this room/place can I zero in on and use to spin the tale from there?
Recently, I had a character standing in Washington Square Park in my mind. But I didn’t know how to begin the scene. I didn’t know how to bring the reader’s attention to the narrative or how to begin showing the reader the revelations that this character was about to encounter. In my mind I saw trees, I saw people, I saw a fountain. But it was too broad still. I needed to narrow it down. To zoom in further.
That’s when I saw it. And the moment I saw it, so did my MC. A tiny penny resting on the ground by her foot, blinking light right into her eye. So much light that she couldn’t help but notice it. She couldn’t resist the urge to pick it up.
From that one penny lit up in sunlight, I began to show my MC’s curiosity in spite of her apprehension to superstitions and good luck charms.
From there, I began to spin the tale.
This is a trick that many of us writers will be familiar with. When we think about how our characters relate to the world, to the people, items, nature, etc. around them. We begin to make connections that help us show what’s going on in their inner worlds as well as the outer.
So why not take this talent, bring it into our daily lives, and begin to practice gratitude, begin to practice spinning the tale but for ourselves?
Be the main character of your life, find an object, an idea, a person, whatever you want, and give it meaning beyond what it might otherwise show on the surface.
It can be as simple as looking at a glass of water on a table or the warm socks on your feet. Take a moment just to inspect your surroundings the way you would for a scene and a character. See everything around you. Breathe with it. What else is there? How has this object made it into your life? What is present right now and why? What is here that otherwise wouldn’t be under different circumstances? What have you gained because of it?
Gratitude is about the minuscule. The details. The little things. The meaning we apply to things.
Writers are observers. We have such a special relationship with details, with paying attention to the moments that matter, the moments in which life is truly happening. If we learn how to apply this view, not just to our writing, it can help us see the beauty in our daily lives as well. We can use it not just to alchemize life into fiction but to help us find hope when it feels so scarce.
Life is beautiful. This is why it hurts so much to see destruction. To see people in power take it and use it for their own gains. This is also why we fight for it. Because we know inherently what a precious thing it is to experience life. What a magical thing. We just have to know where to look.
Rec of the week
Emma McAdam from Therapy in a Nutshell is a licensed marriage and family therapist. She posts videos on YouTube that are informative, down-to-earth, and compassionate. In this one, she explains to us the benefits of maintaining a gratitude practice and the physical effects it has on our brains. If you’d like to learn a bit more about the amazing study of the human mind, give her channel a follow.
Quote of the week
We’ve all probably seen this quote go around a few times on social media, but it’s the one that kept circling around in my mind while writing this post. It’s the one I try to remember most when I can’t seem to tune in to the world without feeling like I’m losing hope.
The concept of yin and yang teaches us that life is made up of opposite forces that are interconnected and counterbalanced. The bad news is that there is bad in the good, but the good news is that there’s also good in the bad. So in moments of despair, we make an effort to find the good in the bad, even if we need a microscope to see it. We do this to hold on to hope. Because the bottom line is that hope is everything.
Hi there, I’m Maria! I’m a freelance fiction editor assisting women writers in amplifying their voices through their writing. You can find me on Instagram @theintuitivedesk. Or visit my site
www. theintuitivedesk.com to find out more.
I’m also a writer currently working on too many novels at the same time. You can read some of my past writings here.
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Your ability to find and appreciate the beauty in the details, even during challenging times, is inspiring. The analogy between practicing gratitude and the process of writing, focusing on the minutiae and details, is a powerful perspective.