Sometimes Being a Good Writer Means Being a Broken Person…

Sometimes Being a Good Writer Means Being a Broken Person…

By Van Essler

 

Sometimes being a good writer means being a broken person…

 

It is often said that if there are no tears in the writer, there can be no tears in the reader. This quote is most often pulled out when you’re trying to teach writing to someone, and it is intended to imply that if the writer isn’t writing from a place of emotional connection, the writing falls flat and is bland and dull…

But is it true? How often have you sat down to write and instead of sharing the emotions of the day, you find yourself lost in escapism? We no more want to think of our own problems as a writer—whether or not the water bill has been paid, final wishes, life’s little calamities—than anyone else, but if we’re divorced from the very emotions we want to emulate on the page, how can we write compelling stories?

The thing is, we can’t divorce ourselves from emotions, not even when we’re the most lost in a story. Whether you’re trying to or not, when you sit down to write, you bring everything with you to that table—your fears, your hopes, your dreams, your triumphs and your failures. When I sat down to write about Lenora, I brough everything to the table, whether I wanted to or not.

Lenora is strong, but not in the ways that she perhaps sees herself. She thinks that because she inherited her father’s money and she is strong and capable, she’s ready to face whatever the world throws at her—but she isn’t ready, not really. She’s a scared little girl with way more to deal with than is her fair share, but I think that is why readers will resonate with her. She’s like us, at the end of the day, despite living in a world turned to ash and facing catastrophic possibilities. She’s just a girl who wants to be seen as a woman; a champion new to finding her sword, and a child who recently lost a parent.

We’re like her, too, because we’re so many facets of the people we’ve loved, we’ve learned from, and ones we’ve yet to meet. I hope readers don’t just find escape, but that they also find bits of themselves they’ve forgotten in Lenora. So many books have done that for me over the years, so I’ll consider it a true triumph if my words bring that to others.

About Vial Thoughts –

Lenora Leahill has recently inherited her father’s estate and is ready to take her place in the enlightened Age of Awareness where books can be instantly consumed as injections using an Aqua Peritia cuff. 

She has grand plans for securing her legacy, but navigating these new responsibilities alone is not easy, especially when it’s impossible to see clearly under the city’s ashfall. 

When an old colleague of her father’s demands fulfillment of a promise Lenora knows nothing about, she discovers this new Age of Awareness is haunted by a dark history. 

Lenora must wade through the shadows of the past and gain her footing in the present if she has any hopes of a future—unless death or madness finds her first.

Vial Thoughts publishes May 11, 2023. 

Order direct here: Vial Thoughts – Raw Dog Screaming Press : Raw Dog Screaming Press or at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, BookShop, or other places online or in select indie bookstores and B&N’s.