What Happens When We Write For Ourselves, Not An Audience?

“In my experience, there are truths about our own lives, our own relationships, that are hard to express directly. Borrowing a truth or a lived reality and fictionalising it through another character, in a different situation can make us step away and see things a bit more objectively. I do feel that fictionalising a difficult personal truth can make it a lot more digestible,” she says.

Bhavna, who is also the co-writer of Netflix’s ‘Dabba Cartel’, began her retreat journey with the intention of expanding her creative practice and sharing the tools she had accumulated over more than two decades of writing. What began as an exploration of storytelling has gradually opened up another dimension of the practice, one that looks at how writing can help people engage with their emotions and experiences.

“I wanted to expand my creative practice and, most importantly, I felt called to share the tools I had gathered for over more than two decades of writing. And as someone once said, what do you do when you have a calling? You respond,” she says.

Her second retreat, held in 2025, explored the relationship between storytelling, metaphor and personal experience. Participants were encouraged to draw from their own lives and transform those experiences into fictional short stories. The idea was to make writing accessible even to those who might not consider themselves writers.

For Bhavna, writing and healing are not mutually exclusive practices. She sees storytelling as the foundation, with different writing techniques offering ways to explore what lies beneath the surface.

“It’s not one or the other. Writing is a form of storytelling and will always be. My attempt is to also use it as a form of healing. People find it intimidating to write and I want to be able to demystify the process for them so they can benefit from it,” she says.

“There are various tools and methods, such as use of metaphor, or expressive writing, or even narrative shifts through which we can connect with ourselves, see and hear ourselves clearly, and, in the process, heal a little bit.”

The discoveries participants made during the retreats have also shaped her understanding of what the process can offer. While she expected a certain degree of personal transformation, what she did not anticipate was how many people would reconnect with parts of themselves they had left behind.

“A certain level of transformation was expected, but what surprised and touched me most was that many participants found and were able to express parts of themselves that they had forgotten or put away to navigate the world,” she says.

It is an observation that brings another dimension to the idea of self-discovery. The process is not necessarily about finding something entirely new, but sometimes about returning to aspects of ourselves that have been set aside along the way.

Kher also makes a distinction between writing for an audience and writing privately. At a time when so much personal expression happens in public, particularly on social media, she believes there is value in writing without the expectation of being read, liked or validated by someone else.

Rather than offering a direct answer to why private writing matters, she suggests that people try it for themselves.

“I would leave this as an experiment for anyone who wants to see a shift in themselves. Try writing privately, where the audience is your subconscious and your intuition. The validation you find there can be far more meaningful than anything anyone else can offer,” she says.

The next chapter of this journey will take place in Bhutan, where Bhavna will host the third edition of her writing retreat, Writing as a Healing Ritual, from December 1 to 6, 2026, at Terma Linca Resort & Spa.

For Bhavna, the setting is an important part of the experience. She approaches the choice of location carefully, looking for a place that can contribute to the retreat in ways that go beyond its physical surroundings.

“I am very careful when choosing a location because I believe it needs to contribute to the experience in subtle, unexpected and layered ways. Bhutan, inherently known as the land of healing, felt like a natural fit for this retreat,” she says.

The suggestion came through her travel and logistics partner Offbeat Tracks. She hopes the natural surroundings will become part of the participants’ reflective experience. “The philosophical willow tree, the river flowing through the property and the surrounding mountains will now become part of the participants’ contemplative journey,” she says.

Having conducted two retreats, Bhavna does not see the upcoming edition as a repetition of what has gone before. Her own experiences and learnings continue to shape how she approaches the process, and she expects each retreat to unfold differently.

“It’s a learning process. Someone once asked me how one retreat is different from the other, and my answer was simple. Well, I am not the same person I was a year ago, and so I will be bringing a new version of myself, new learnings, new tools, and facilitate the process of unfolding. For the participants and, by extension, for myself,” she says.

That sense of discovery appears to be central to what she hopes to bring to the Bhutan retreat. While she will be facilitating the process, she also sees herself as someone who continues to learn through the experiences of those who participate.

Writing as a Healing Ritual will take place from December 1 to 6, 2026. The six-day retreat is open to people without prior writing experience, with guided storytelling and writing exercises designed to help participants explore their lived experiences, emotions and perspectives.

For Bhavna, the intention is to make writing less intimidating and allow people to discover what the process can reveal, both about the stories they carry and the parts of themselves they may have stopped listening to.