Fiction is the mirror we use to reflect truths about ourselves and the world that we dare not speak for fear of rejection or disbelief. Within every story there is a grain of truth about life and us. Whether you realize this or not your work reveals more about you than you know.
For some it’s the want to change the past so they fictionalize it in an attempt to heal old wounds and make things how they “should” be. For others it’s about addressing the ills of society and calling the corruption they see.
Whatever the case fiction provides the space needed to explore these avenues as well as give an outlet to our subconscious mind. In the course of writing thoughts and emotions will well up and things you thought you were over may rear their head. This can block you from writing if you don’t acknowledged and address them.
Without noticing it more of yourself creeps into your work. A little of this is good but not to the point your message is overpowered and your characters are straggled because you won’t let them act autonomously.
The urge to make your protagonist an idealized version of yourself can be hard to resist. It’s all too easy to give into the seductive siren’s call. Who wouldn’t want to be the center of their own fantasy world?
While it’s true writers put a little piece of themselves into every character, it’s also true you can make them too much like you.
If your characters tend to think. act, and talk like you, chances are you’re using them to act out unresolved issue in your life. this doesn’t mean your characters can’t share similarities with you, but make sure their wants, needs, and aspirations are front and center.
Us writers can be a very selfish lot. We can get so enamored with ourselves we start believe everything that happens to us is noteworthy. It’s not.
Yes write about the birth of a child, the death of a loved, or some other life changing event or time you struggled through.
But save the rants about your boss chewing you out and the barista coping a snotty attitude with you for your journal. Because no one, sans your friends and family, is going to read it.
In the same vein we can become so in love with our writing we fail to see the flaws in it. How any of you out there make excuses for not putting your work out there because you don’t want to deal with rejection? How many of you have said the words, “Well I write for me so it doesn’t have to have perfect, spelling, grammar, syntax or structure.”?
That’s fine if it’s what you want to do but if your goal is to get published then you need to think about pleasing other people. This isn’t a call to compromise your creative vision to chase the latest trend, but you do have to be aware that what appeals to you won’t always appeal to a larger audience.
If you’re not aware of current and past trends in your genre you can spend countless hours slaving away on a book only to find there’s little if any interest in it. if you find yourself in this position then take heart because you’re not alone and you can always salvage something of worth in the rewrite process.
The point is while you may be the center of the world you’ve created, outside of it that is not so. You have to earn your way in and stay there by putting out content that people want, enjoy, and can’t get anywhere else. And this stars by being true to yourself while being open and respectful of others. Not by acting like you’re the greatest thing to happen to the written word ever.
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