Suicide and Storytelling: Writing Hope in Dark Places (Guest Post by Rocky Callen)
Content disclaimer: discussion of suicide and suicidal ideation. If we are writing for young people, especially about suicide, we are not just telling stories. We are shaping how someone might understand their pain or whether they choose to survive it. I grew up with suicidal thoughts as a soundtrack in the back of my mind. Sometimes I could lower the volume. Sometimes I could shut it off. Other times, the words blared out of the speakers and I’d jam all the buttons hoping for relief, but the soundtrack played on, taunting. As someone who has lived with and battled depression and who has lost many loved ones to suicide, I remember seeing media that used suicide for shock value or glamorized it. It looked almost romantic in how it was portrayed, poetic in its finality. I know I have dressed it up that way in my own mind before, but that’s the problem. That’s the danger. We should not make suicide look appealing to young people in our stories. ...
