Writing Hard Stories by Melanie Brooks

I read this book in three days; I simply was not able to put it down. I had been incredibly hungry to read other's stories of their trauma and how they are getting through: this book satisfied that need.  Melanie Brooks' Writing Hard Stories serves also as igniter fluid for anyone thinking of writing about their trauma (whether for themselves to read or others).  In the beginning of each memoirist's experience the traumatic event is a chaotic, overwhelming vortex of emotions and memory.  But in the challenges and intricacies of writing the artists were able to put a narrative to their memories, making the pain somewhat more bearable.  The event now had a story arc, a beginning, middle, and end in some way.  At the end of the process the authors had a physical object (a book) that contained their trauma. The ability to take feelings and memories that feel so all encompassing and overpowering, and put them in a container (a confined, finite space with a beginning and an end) is amazingly hopeful. A great read for trauma recovery.