“It Really Just Wrote Itself”

Abstract

Creative writing is increasingly employed in healthcare, but knowledge of patients' experiences and the benefits of creative writing is limited. This chapter presents findings from a qualitative evaluation of an intervention offering creative writing workshops to people with chronic illnesses in Denmark. The purpose was to assess how facilitated creative writing can benefit people in rehabilitation. Data were produced through an ethnographic fieldwork at four creative writing workshops, and the analysis was based on theories of agency. Under the theme “the participants' experiences of performing creative writing and its benefits,” three subthemes were identified: 1) being guided by the pen, 2) providing food for thought, and 3) the written text as a medium. Participants experienced that their texts gained agency. The texts stimulated reflection and inspired meaningful conversations with relatives. The authors conclude that facilitated creative writing benefits participants' rehabilitative efforts by instigating a process potentially leading to reconfigurations of the writer's self.