October 22, 2009
Sometimes I wonder if we writers are simply a collection of tortured souls agonizing to get our stories out. It seems to me that writers, the really good ones anyway, are able to tap into raw emotions that seem to transmit effortlessly to the page. Of course, those of us endeavoring to do this know how difficult it is to not only harness this emotion but find words to portray it.
I believe everyone has a story within. Everyone has at some time or another felt so deeply that their little pinky toe radiates the feeling. But it is the courage to share these feelings – the sorrow, the embarrassment, the tenderness – that sets a great writer apart from a mediocre one. And it is precisely this courage that I continue to strive for with each sentence that I write. And I find that it is the emotions that scare you to death that you need to put on paper. It is the courageous writing that stuns its readers into voracious consumption.
We always hear: write what you know. It makes sense then that to successfully transmit deep emotion – whether it be joy, love, fear, worry, agony – the writer needs to relive it in a way. The challenge is to relive it while remaining focused enough not to be lost in it: to hover on the brink of insanity. We need to kind of fade in and out of a deep emotional consciousness so that we can get the words on the page before the feeling is lost. For me, this is the hardest part of writing. I could write endlessly about a character and about her trials and tribulations or I can feel intensely. But to infuse a one dimensional being with three dimensional emotion that allows her to come alive for everyone who reads it is the true test of a successful character.
What it wouldn’t mean to me to have someone read my novel and cry when my character does – then I’d know it was a job well done. But occasionally when I am writing, I know that I am on the verge of something great, something unique and important, but I just can’t get there. The intensity is missing.
What do you do when the emotion just isn’t there? Have you ever had the courage to write about something that terrifies you?