I was faced with many difficulties when I sat down to write my first 1000 words of my non fiction major piece of work. My topic is mental illness, in particular anxiety and OCD, which I suffer from. I found it really hard to try and mesh my own thoughts with those of the people I interviewed, so that there was a coherent angle and line of thought through the piece. It was also really hard for me to write freely and truthfully about my experiences with OCD, as it's not something a reader will hear about every day and some would feel shocked when reading it. When I was first writing this piece I chopped and chose certain sections of my experience with OCD that I felt comfortable including. My piece is going to be about mental illness and its negative stereotypes, so I began to question whether I was buying into the stereotype of mental illness sounding 'crazy' if I was too afraid of the judgement I would receive by putting in some of the more disturbing parts of the illness. So I took a shot at it, and wrote down the truth. I still have a long way to go to be able to write honestly and truthfully, but I think I made a good effort when I posted my 1000 words with information I would not usually share or write about. It feels good finally getting it out, and getting my voice heard, even in a small way.
Image: http://www.apronsandapricots.com/tag/toronto-food-writing/
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