Instagram artist I follow draws to work through their mental issues. Writing can do that too, I think. One writing class I took said don't write creatively as a form of therapy. Or maybe it was just some list of things not to do while writing stories. Like have an opening scene with the character waking up to an alarm. I did have one professor who didn't allow vampire stories. Or at least he said he didn't allow them; as far as I know, no one tested him on it. He was a boisterous man at times, and he said "No vampires!" in the way a dad might say "Don't set anything on fire!"

Writing can be therapeutic; I think wherever I heard that was conveying that if you're trying to write for someone other than you, it's not a good idea to blur those lines. If you're expecting to get feedback on it as a story anyway. I can imagine a comedian telling a bad joke and no one laughing and then saying "That was my mother's favorite joke. She told it to me before she died." Which could be funny. "I'm glad she's not here to see it bomb so hard. I told her it wasn't funny. It was her dying wish that I use it my act. So that was for you Mom. I'm sure you're laughing. In Hell."

Using writing as therapy. Tricky indeed. Very easy to slip into that escapism. And a dangerous kind, because humans seem to be able to overwrite their own memories. There are times when I am reminiscing and I think "Stop. You can't live here." Okay not just reminiscing, but thinking of other paths I could have taken. Garden of Forking Paths indeed. It's the mental equivalent of using my finger to hold my place in a Choose Your Own Adventure book, except using all my fingers.

Touching all these moments of love and loss, while I try to turn the pages with my nose.