Craft of writing: Just Keep Pushing Forward.

 Dear Reader,

Last week, I said that I was going to share my most helpful resource from my library on writing but there's been a bit of a change of plans. I realized that really was going to be a rather trite and rote type of post. There are a lot of books about writing out there that give a great deal of good (and not so good) advice. So, please forgive this hard left in topic. It's still focused on writing more effectively, but looking at the emotional element of writing.

Way back when I was working on book one of the Umbrel Chronicles series, I had a rape scene I was writing. It was not excessively graphic, but it was enough to trigger my c-ptsd from being raped myself. It took me a solid two weeks to write a scene that was less than one page. At one point in the process, I was ready to abandon the whole story because I just couldn't get the words out because of how upset I was. I pressed forward despite my discomfort and wound up writing a realistic and gut wrenching scene.

How? I took my despair, grief, and horror over what had happened to me and channeled it into the scene I was writing. It was painful to write. It was probably one of the most painful scenes that I had to write in that book. (There were others that were difficult, but this scene ranks number one.) Sometimes, you have to push through the pain to write something that will evoke a true response in your reader.

The trick is to remember that all forms of writing is a conversation with your wonderful friend, the Reader. Some of what you are going to share is going to probably fall flat, not every scene is going to be perfect. But, if you take what you are working with in the struggle of writing that scene and turn it into fuel for the scene, your scene will go to a whole new level of empathetic realism. You will successfully communicate the concept and evoke the feelings that you want from your reader by pouring your feelings into your writing.

Right now, I'm struggling with pretty low confidence about my writing. I feel like I'm a hack. It's kind of bitter irony that I am writing a blog post that is encouraging others in their writing when I feel like I'm not good enough. But, this is where I'm practicing that 'just keep pushing forward' exercise. It's making this post rather grueling to write, especially this last bit. When the brain weasels are telling you to just delete everything and focus on your houseplants and knitting, it's a tough writing day regardless of topic, genre, or length. Hell, even a grocery list is challenging on days like today. 

But, the fact that I didn't give up and I kept pushing forward is a victory. The fact that I have bared my heart to you in all honesty is in keeping with what I was taught is one of the core principles of writing: Write the truest sentence you can. I know I've done that. And if I can do that in the midst of being depressed, anxious, and very distracted by the neighbor's dogs going bananas over the wind blowing, I know that you can do it too. It may be one word at a time over a length of time. That's ok. We're not in a race, you and I. We're just doing our best with what we have. Sometimes, our best doesn't look magnificent and polished on the first try. But that's what editing is for, right?