Writing While Healing - Indie Author Interview: Gregory Owen

 Welcome to the newest post in Writing While Healing, a series where I speak with indie authors who’ve found light through writing during their darkest times.

Today, I’m honored to feature Gregory Owen, a horror author and a new friend who writes short stories. You can learn more about Gregory here.

Please introduce yourself!

Gregory Owen

Please tell us a little about yourself and the kind of stories you write.

I write predominantly horror, having had a number of short stories published in that genre; I also self-published a psychological thriller in May 2024. Some of my horror stories cross into aspects of science fiction on occasion, too.

Would you feel comfortable sharing a bit about your mental health journey?

I have never been formally diagnosed, but I have worked with counselors in the past and was told that I did suffer from depression, and due to the known typical symptoms of it, I can agree. I mainly began dealing with this issue during my teenage years, from what I can recall, and it explained a lot of issues I had during my college years and onward, especially in coping with mental and emotional abuse I contended with from my father growing up.

How has your mental health influenced your writing process or creativity?

I've been a creative sort for all my life: from a young age, I enjoyed drawing and writing stories, and had a love for film, drama, and music. I struggled with mental and emotional abuse growing up from my father, who, I learned in my college years, never really wanted me; he was the same toward my mother, too. I dealt a lot with depression, self-loathing, and there were some instances where I contemplated ending my life.

While this adversely affected my creative nature for a number of years as an adult (it was hard for me to get the motivation; in fact, it took my nearly a decade to complete my first novel), I found that enveloping myself in my creative pursuits was a way of venting. My writing especially helped with this because I could exercise releasing trauma and those inner demons onto the page.

Do you find writing to be healing, challenging, or a bit of both?

A bit of both, honestly. For me, writing short stories are the ones that are more healing than anything else. I find that writing horror is healing for me in a strange way because, while I enjoy horror and find it therapeutic in ways unlike a lot of people, it also allows me to vent those bottled-up emotions. Longer works like my novel are more challenging, but still healing, and this is due simply to the daunting nature of a longer, complete work.

Either way, it helps me feel accomplished when I work on and complete something that began as a mere idea...in a way, it's my method of showing my father that I'm worthwhile despite not truly caring what he thinks, which itself is a paradox, I know.

Has your experience with mental health shaped the themes or characters in your stories?

I find that I often write flawed characters that struggle with demons, literal and figurative. Characters often fight with depression or self-destructive tendencies, they face abuse and neglect, and many don't have good relationships with family members. In fact, I found that my novel, which features three primary unrelated male characters, all have unresolved issues with their fathers; while each one is unique and dealt with in different ways, they all oddly express feelings I've had.

Are there any writing routines, boundaries, or self-care habits that help you stay grounded?

I take breaks. Simple as that. I can be obsessive with things, and as I've gotten older, I'm more obsessed with finishing things. Whether it's an art piece or a YouTube video, I'll work tirelessly if I don't force myself to take breaks; same goes for writing. I'll try to write in chunks until something is done, though I've been known to "marathon" some stories before.

I also make sure I plan stories out in outline form. Not having a structure used to overwhelm me at times, and would fuel my depressive tendencies because I'd feel that because I couldn't complete a work I believed was good, I had little worth. I found that these two things have helped me the most as a writer and have helped me cope.

What advice would you give to other writers who have similar struggles as you?

Take breaks: it's okay to rest. And don't feel that you're unworthy as a writer. Sure, you need to make sure that you take time and polish your work, but there are people out there that will enjoy what you write if you put effort and your truth into it. You'll have people that may not like what you do, but you can't please everyone...and that's okay. If you're happy with it, that's what matters, and you have to remind yourself of this.

Have you ever taken breaks from writing to focus on your mental health?

As previously mentioned, it took my years to get my novel written. I began it roughly in 2011 as an expansion of short script I wrote for a short film I made in college, and I dabbled in writing it but never fully committed. I didn't get serious about writing until 2014-2015 when I began writing horror short stories, the first one being published in 2016. I didn't necessarily take breaks for betterment of my mental health, but *because* of my mental health.

I was only when I met my wife and shared my work that she helped me focus on my novel. Since then, yes, I've taken breaks, especially recently: this was due to completing my MA in Creative Writing while working full-time, which saw me writing numerous short stories in a short amount of time, and coping with the loss of my grandfather, who acted as my true, good father-figure throughout much of my life. All of it affected my mental and physical health, honestly, but I'm slowly getting back to a form of normality.

What’s something you wish more people understood about being a writer with mental health struggles?

Perhaps that, possibly even more than for writers without mental health struggles, writing is even more vital as a form of self-healing and therapy. I've been lucky to not have to undergo any treatment for my issues, and found that writing, among my other artistic pursuits, helped me a great deal along with a good support system, which itself is sometimes difficult to find. We need to show support for each other- writers to other writers, and readers, whether they enjoy the writers' work or not, must also be supportive, period.

Is there anything else you'd like to share with the readers?

Just that I hope, if you give my work a chance, that you enjoy or at least take something away from it.

Where can readers connect with you and your work? (Socials, website, books, etc.)

On YouTube, Instagram, Threads, and X (looking at expanding), my handle is @gregoriousviews. My author website is here. My novel, as well as some published anthologies containing some of my short stories, can also be found on Amazon, and here is my author page there. Lastly, I'm also on Goodreads.

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Thank you for reading!

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