If you want to write,

know that...

Writing takes guts. Anything worth writing about is probably going to scare you.

Writing about yourself changes you, so don’t start writing if you don’t want your life to change.

Saying that you don’t have time to write is just not true.

Everyone has 15 minutes a day, start with that.

Black Tulip Press is a small Canadian publishing house.

Owner Reinekke Lengelle designs, organizes, and teaches workshops and courses in the area of writing and personal development. She also provides writing support and advice on

self-publishing.

Writing affects our well-being

Writing can have a profound effect on our health and well-being. Research even shows that writing affects our physical health and can boost our immune system. In particular when we write about trauma and our emotions.*

The lung function of asthma patients improved significantly when they wrote about the “most stressful event in their lives” as part of an experiment.**

Those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who participated in an internet-based writing project also showed significant improvement; of these patients 88 percent showed a decrease in anxiety and 80 percent reported reduced feelings of depression.***

A seven-year American study of prisoners who participated in arts and writing programs showed that they had 75 percent fewer disciplinary problems while in prison and that, within 2 years of release, their recidivism rate was 27 percent lower than that of prisoners who didn’t participate.****

* See James Pennebaker’s research.** Smyth, J.M., Stone, A.A., Hurewitz, A. & Kaell, A. (1999). Effects of writing about stressful experiences on symptom reduction in patients with asthma or rheumatoid arthritis: A randomized trial. Journal of the American Medical Association, 281, 1304-1309.*** Lange, A., Schouten, M., Schrieken, B. & van de Ven, J.P. (2003). Interapy: A model for therapeutic writing through the Internet. In: Lepore, S.J. & Smyth, J.M.(Eds), The writing cure: how expressive writing promotes health and well-being. Washington: American Psychological Association. **** Vega, J.P. (2001). Poetry in Prisons. Poets & Writers Magazine, Vol. 29, 3, 56-58

Writing has taught me that the hardest things you face in life can either leave you wise or bitter. It‘s your choice.

I used to think I was trying to write to understand or fix myself.

Now I want to tell a story and create beauty.