Writing with a Heavy Heart: Using Grief and Loss to Stretch Your Fiction

I love resources that help me with my own writing process. I'm a huge fan of stories that are emotionally packed. I feel ripped off if I read a story that deals with heartache and grieve and skips over the emotion the characters must be feeling.

Denise Jaden's non-fiction book WRITING WITH A HEAVY HEART uses the grieving process and shows writers how to use them when reaching deeper in their own stories. There are writing exercises throughout too.

Some tidbits of this slim but power punched resource book:

**Figure out how to heal-and then do the opposite.

**Why it's important to show some of your character's world first before showing the pain.

**The Ambush--When does the pain come back? Usually at the most unexpected times. **Omigosh, this is so true!

I can't help but think of our then 7 year old who after his beloved parrot died had a really hard time dealing with the death. He'd been to his grandfather's funeral a few months before and it didn't seem to click. But when Cecily, his parrot, died? A rush of emotions came up.

I think the same thing--how grief resurfaces--is not only true in real life but probably the same in our character's lives too. As a reader I'm disappointed if these scenes are detached without any emotion.


There's also such topics as grief outlets, grief at different ages, and grief myths. Plus there are some recommendations and resources at the back.

This is one resource that should be included in all writer's libraries if they want to go deeper in their own projects.