Teenage years aren’t easy and most of us would not want to relive that time in our lives again. That’s not to say that it doesn’t have its good sides, but given the opportunity, can you honestly say you’d go back? Probably not. If your answer was yes, then congratulations; you’re one of the rare few.
The truth is, today’s teenagers have it even harder, with all the social media telling them they’re not attractive enough, not rich enough, not smart enough, not fill-in-the-blank enough. The emotions can easily overwhelm them, especially if they don’t have an outlet to process or express them.
Creative writing, especially storytelling, can be a safe, productive way for teenagers to express their emotions and reflect on them. Usually, once you put everything you’re worried about down on paper, you realize it’s not all as bad as it seems in your head, so writing can have a lot of different benefits.
Benefits of Creative Writing for Teens
Creative writing can be an excellent hobby, but it’s more than that; it can be sort of an outlet for teens to process their emotions and improve their mental health.
Some feelings can’t be translated verbally and creating your own narrative, with unique characters and experience, can help articulate complex feelings.
- How Storytelling Contributes to Self-Expression
Writing stories can be a way to translate inner feelings into narratives, which means that there’s now a tangible depiction of what they’re going through. Think back to when you were a teenager; you felt misunderstood, you couldn’t find a way to express yourself, and you might have even been embarrassed about the way you feel or have felt.
Your teen could be going through the same thing and storytelling will give them a place where they’ll confront their emotions and have more clarity.
- A Safe Space for Reflection
If you’re embarrassed or insecure, which is not unheard of for teens, you probably won’t want to share your thoughts with anyone. But if you keep them bottled up, how do you stay sane? You don’t, which is why you need to express them somehow.
Creative writing is a safe space to express everything your teen is thinking and feeling in a completely unfiltered way, without the fear of being judged.
- Cognitive and Emotional Balance
To write a story, you have to be emotionally invested in it, and you also need to turn your brain on because it needs to make sense. So, writing a story lets you catch two fish in one net.
This combination is especially useful to teens who write about what they’re struggling with because not only are they organizing their thoughts, they’re also working through their emotional tension through creativity.
How to Get Teens to Start Writing
If you’re dealing with a creative teen, you’re golden because they won’t resist as much to the idea of writing stories or even journals.
But if the teen in question is not that creative, you’ll have to find ways to encourage them to give it a try. There are a few really effective ones, so let’s take a look.
- Create a Judgment-Free Zone
Criticism, even if it’s constructive, isn’t your teen’s best friend because they’re probably already insecure to some extent. So, what do you do? You explain to them that writing a story into their own private notebook or laptop gives them a chance to express absolutely everything that’s going on in their mind.
And even if the story is complete fiction, they can express themselves without worrying if someone will tell them their writing isn’t good enough.
- Daily Journaling or Free-Writing
Using writing as an emotional outlet doesn’t necessarily have to mean that there needs to be a story involved – daily journaling and free-writing will do just fine. There’s no pressure to create something structured and your teen can let their thoughts just flow naturally. And the more they write, the more comfortable they’ll get with expressing themselves.
- Prompts to Spark Ideas
Creative prompts are perfect for sparking ideas and getting your teen to write. “What if you woke up with a superpower?” or “How would a normal day look for your future self?” will give them a base for their story.
If you want to give them ideas on how to structure/form their stories, then this step-by-step guide to writing children’s books could prove resourceful. There are plenty of similar guides to learn from, so if they need more information, there’s always more out there. This can inspire them to develop their ideas further into actual narratives without getting overwhelmed.
Conclusion
A lot of people struggle with their thoughts and emotions, and when they can’t find a way to express them and work through them, their mental health suffers. Now imagine all of this happening, but not to an adult – to a teen.
You’re not really a child anymore, but you’re not an adult either; you have all these new emotions, but can’t do anything about them. It’s a nightmare, but creative writing can help a lot.
Putting your thoughts on paper, creating characters and stories out of them and then analyzing it is a fun, safe way to keep your mental health in check.
Also read:
How to Handle Teen Destructive Behavior
How Music Therapy Helps Troubled Teens
Image attribution: Pexels, Mart Production
