The great Jack Ketchum spoke about ‘writing from the wound’. Something similar but distinct that may be helpful is ‘writing to heal the wound’. Writing as therapy and as catharsis. It’s something I certainly did with my last two books, House of Bad Memories and Daddy’s Boy, and it’s something I’ve done to some degree for a long time now, but only recently have I become aware of just how much I do it and of its potential benefits. There are various ways you can ‘write to heal the wound’ and I want to offer some thoughts on what this might look like for you. This is not intended as an exhaustive discussion but rather a starting point, and I’d love for you to weigh in with your insights, thoughts, and experiences.

Writing From The Wound

To get a greater sense of just what Jack Ketchum meant by ‘writing from the wound’ I strongly encourage you to watch this video.

When the Odyssey Writing Workshop presented a ‘writing from the wound’ lecture from Dallas Mayr (Jack Ketchum), they included this as part of the press release which rather nicely sums up the WFTW concept. Thanks to Horror Novel Reviews for reporting on this here.

“Stories can gain great power when you explore things that truly trouble or disturb you. Jack advises that you ask yourself difficult questions. What really terrifies you? What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done? What awful thing have you fantasized about doing but would never do? What’s the worst thing that could happen to you or to your loved ones? What breaks your heart? Jack explores the process by which an author can truly know a character and gain empathy for that character through similar experiences or impulses. Remembering and recording your painful, damaging experiences can help you use those experiences later in stories. Fiction must be honest, and acknowledging and using those difficult experiences and forbidden thoughts can bring more honesty into your work.”

Earlier today, I put out a post on Bluesky saying I would be writing about this and S.J. Bagley said in a conversation he’d had with Ketchum, Ketchum likened writing horror literature to “secular witnessing”.

There are endless articles and interviews with Jack Ketchum where he spoke about ‘writing from the wound’ so it is evident it was a career concern and if you read his fiction (and you should) it is also evident he not only preached ‘writing from the wound’, but he practised it.

For me, writing from the wound is writing from and about (whether cloaked in metaphor or not) the most painful experiences in your life. Writing about those things you don’t want to write about, don’t want to speak about, don’t even want to acknowledge exist.

Writing About the Darkness to Heal

The most obvious way one might write to heal the wound is to write about the darkness itself. How overtly you do it is up to you. In my novel, House of Bad Memories, the first half of the book confronted darkness and trauma from my childhood and the second half confronted the worst time in my adult life—something I was going through as I was writing it. The advantage of writing about it as you are ‘in it’ is that you can write the rawest and most honest things. The disadvantage is you might be too close to it. I think Ketchum’s advice above is smart and gives us the best of both worlds.

“Remembering and recording your painful, damaging experiences can help you use those experiences later in stories.”

This enables you to record those raw emotions as they happen but gives you the time and space to decide how you want to use them in your stories.

We can explore and say the things we want to say in so-called fiction in a way we never could in so-called nonfiction. Writing stories and fiction allows us to be more honest than writing pure autobiography.

Writing about the darkness also allows us to explore it in a safe setting.

I again wrote about the darkest episode in my adult life in my newly released novel, Daddy’s Boy, but this time there was even more metaphor and a hell of a lot of jokes and comedy. Which brings me to my next point …

Writing to Heal and Soothe the Soul

Writing Daddy’s Boy was the most fun I have ever had writing anything. There are so many jokes and the situation itself is absurdly humorous. Daddy’s Boy is a funny (in both senses) book in that, on one hand, I am very much writing from the wound but on the other, I am writing to escape the darkness.

I got so engrossed in Daddy’s Boy that every writing session allowed me to forget my problems and my troubles. A number of people have asked me if writing House of Bad Memories and to some extent Daddy’s Boy was cathartic and when they ask, they mean it in the sense that I was able to exorcise demons and explore personal pain and trauma in my life. The answer is ‘yes’ but it was cathartic in another way, too. It allowed me to escape my troubles. To be transported to another world. A world, in the case of Daddy’s Boy, with an unhealthy amount of literal and figurative sausages, and where 90% of the world’s male population wanted to be on the popular British dating show, Naked Attraction. It was their lifelong dream!

To Write From The Wound or Write to Heal The Wound?

The truth is, both ‘writing from the wound’ and ‘writing to heal the wound’ are actually ‘writing from the wound’ or at least ‘writing in response to the wound’. They are two sides of the same coin. You have two choices when it comes to writing when you are in considerable pain.

1. Writing from the wound: write about that pain, couched in as much metaphor as you want or need. It might be, the more metaphor, the more honest you can get.
2. Writing to heal the wound: writing as escapism and as a healer and as a way to be away from your present pain.

In reality, you will probably find that you end up doing a combination of the two whether you mean to or not. If you choose the former, you’ll find you’re temporarily escaping your troubles as you get absorbed in your writing. If you choose the latter, you may well look back on your work and realise it was even more honest and even more from the wound—from the goddamn heart—than the former would have been.

The funny thing is, I was faced with this dilemma when I first started writing Daddy’s Boy, I just didn’t know it at the time. See, I was 50,000 words into a dark psychological thriller that explored the trauma, pain, and negativity I was feeling at the time. But it was so direct, so unflinching, that it weighed heavy on me, as if the thick fog of depression itself. And at the same time, I coined the premise for Daddy’s Boy. It was light, it was fun, it was joy.

In the end, I wound up writing Daddy’s Boy because my friend and collaborator, John Crinan, said that was the story he wanted to see in the world. And it was totally the right decision because it helped heal me. It added light and joy to a time of darkness and despair. Yet I still have 50,000 words of authentic, visceral, ‘in the moment’ darkness, damage, and pain. I’ve looked back on it and there’s a lot for me to work through, and one day I will. Maybe, as Ketchum said, I’ll be able to use those ‘damaging experiences’ in later stories.

So, What Happens When I Experience Pain in the Present and Future?

I can’t give a direct answer to this other than to tell you I’ll have those two choices above. Another choice is to simultaneously do both and see which becomes the dominant project. Another choice is to not write at all and to give myself time off. But I doubt I’ll choose that third one. Writing is my happy place even when on the surface it isn’t very happy. Writing is my calling. Writing is what I’ve staked my career choices and life on.

So, I’ll write. Sometimes from the wound. Sometimes to escape it.

But I’ll keep telling the truth and I’ll strive to keep healing.

I hope there’s been something of value here. Something that resonates. Something that might even inspire. If there is, it’s best to credit the late great Jack Ketchum/Dallas Mayr for inspiring me in the first place.

If you want to read the most fun I’ve ever had writing a book then please pick up my new release, Daddy’s Boy. It’s available in paperback, ebook, and audio. I’ll put some links below but you should be able to pick it up anywhere good books and audiobooks are sold (though some of the audiobook markets—hey, Audible—haven’t put it up yet but it’s coming).

​Buy Daddy’s Boy on Amazon UK ​

​Buy Daddy’s Boy on Amazon US ​

​Buy Daddy’s Boy from This Is Horror​

​Buy Daddy’s Boy audiobook on Audiobooks.com​

​Buy Daddy's Boy audiobook from Google Play​

​​Buy Daddy's Boy audiobook from Kobo​

​​​Buy Daddy's Boy audiobook from Barnes & Noble NOOK​

Daddy’s Boy is truly an indy endeavour, a word-of-mouth book, and a ‘for the weird people’ project. It’s gonna be a slow burn for sales but I promise you this, every time I see someone has bought it, every time I see someone has started reading it on Kindle Unlimited, every time I see someone has left a review on Goodreads, I get excited.

The purpose of this piece wasn’t to get you to buy Daddy’s Boy, it was to talk about how writing has helped heal me and alleviated my pain and trauma to some extent, and in the hope it might do the same for you. But I only released Daddy’s Boy last week and I’m not a millionaire yet, so I have to plug it, even if it feels a little dirty.

So, until next time, check out those articles on This Is Horror below, keep listening to the This Is Horror Podcast, and have a great, great day.

Michael David Wilson

P.S. If you like this newsletter and want to support my work and This Is Horror, please become a This Is Horror Podcast patron. It would make me happy but only do it if it will make you happy, too. ​​

P.P.S. If you’re ready to take your writing to the next level with some professional editing or a writing consultation, you can find out about my rates here and reply to this email. ​

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