As Writers We Cut Our Lip
Balancing Catharticsm and Unhealed Trauma: Writing Won't Solve Everything
Twenty One Pilots, a band fronted by Tyler Joseph have a song called "Cut My Lip" in which Tyler talks about the demand his audience has for him to express his pain. Tyler's willingness to be vulnerable and express his demons brought them fame, but creating art isn't easy.
He ponders the balance between self-expression and expectation. The fans want more expression, but relatability depends on his ability to expose his pain and face his demons.
Sometimes he doesn’t want to do this, but he does it anyway. Metaphorically he cuts his lip:
“Rust around the rim
Drink it anyway
I cut my lip”
The song reminds me of how difficult writing can be sometimes - especially when you have an audience that you've built talking about your problems.
Writing is cathartic, yes, but trauma isn't always healed with intellect and understanding. Otherwise I think my traumas would be healed by now.
Healing often requires other interventions - like feeling, to move through.
When I'm stuck on topics to write about I'll delve into my past for morsels of pain to share. That can be uncomfortable but I know it resonates so I do it anyway.
I cut my lip, deliberately, for my work. I do it to resonate, to be relateable, to show others the parts of me that may also lie in them. This comes at a cost, sometimes. As Tyler says:
“I keep on goin' back
Even though it's me I abuse
I'll keep on goin' back”
It’s a balancing act: What do we want to share, and what do we not?
What is helping us, and what is making us feel worse?
Being aware of these questions is important.
Writing doesn't heal all wounds, unfortunately.
Writing doesn't heal all wounds. For sure.
I think, maybe, what you are running up against is both diminishing returns and two types of wounds.
Wounds we misunderstand can get sorted out somewhat by writing about them. Wounds we understand require a whole lot of other stuff to heal. The first helps us, the second helps our readers.