What are you writing for? By Jenny Alexander

A few years ago, I did a skills swap with a branding consultant who needed help with her novel. Through a series of searching questionnaires, she magically uncovered a common thread I had not seen before that ran through my many and various books and publications: fiction, non-fiction, self-help, trade and educational, children's and adults', poems and articles - they were all driven by a strong desire to help.

As soon as I saw that, I knew where it had come from. When I was in my early twenties, my older sister killed herself, and the fact is I simply cannot bear to think of people feeling, as she must have done, that their life has no value or meaning, or that the joy of living is not enough to balance out the pain.

In one way or another, most of my books seek to celebrate the joy and suggest robust ways of engaging with the struggle, through identifying what feels meaningful to you and actively pursuing it.

A novel about sibling suicide, funny children' fiction, self-help... all threads in the same fabric of my writing world

Lately, I've been writing about writing, because for me that is the royal road to finding what feels meaningful and uncovering stories and images that can light a life. My first book for writers, Writing in the House of Dreams: Unlock the Power of Your Unconscious Mind, was about how to relax the conscious mind and open up to inspiration.

My second, Happy Writing: Beat Your Blocks, Be Published and Find Your Flow, was for writers who, in the course of a long book or a career, may have begun to lose the pleasure of writing, because in the current publishing world it can be difficult not to abandon your unique inner necessities.

This new book, Free-Range Writing: 75 Forays For the Wild Writer's Soul, is about spreading your wings, inhabiting more of your writer self and building your writing confidence and power. 

A journalist who interviewed me for the local paper a few weeks ago asked me if I wasn’t doing myself out of business as a writing teacher, publishing a book that not only includes 75 writing tasks I might use in my workshops but also a chapter on how to use them to set up your own writing group.

I explained that I didn’t see writing as a competitive thing like business, but as a way to build community. It was something that could enrich a person’s life, and writing in a group could satisfy a fundamental human need to share the stories of both our lived and imagined experiences, like elders under the tribal tree. 

As we were talking, I realised the reason why I teach writing is the same as the reason why I write. I want as many people as possible to know how to reach into the well and draw up what they need to sustain them through the vicissitudes of life. I don't want anyone to feel adrift on a sea of pointlessness and pain, because I know what can happen if they drift too far.

I love my three writing books; I'm proud of them. So it's no hardship for me to be working on promotions. I've got an article about free-range writing in the current edition of Writing Magazine, and I've pitched to all the other major mags for writers. 

I'm organising events for a free-range writing tour, offering free talks and workshops for libraries, writing groups and bookshops, and I've got two slots at my local litfest in Looe on November 19th. 

All this isn't just about celebrating the new book; it's about celebrating writing. The way I see it, writing can help us reconnect with our deepest self and with other people, and that can keep us safe from despair. That's why I do it, and why I teach creative workshops. 

But we're all different, so how about you? Do you know what are you writing for?