Write What Scares You, Part 1

Write what scares you.

Hm. That doesn't make sense sometimes... Why would we write what scares us?

This can be looked at from a few different ways. So this will be a multiple part post.

One thing that I thought of, that maybe isn't exactly what they meant, but is worth thinking about anyhow: Write what makes you sad.

At some point in your novel, your going to have to write sad things. That's how it goes. When it comes to reading and/or writing sadness, I have different feelings.

Sometimes, I enjoy writing that. "Yes, let's make the reader cry!" When I'm in those moods, I almost like writing sad things. Another mood I enjoy writing sad things in is when I personally am in just a melancholy mood. Grab a Kleenex box, turn on sad music, and lock myself in my room and cry.

I don't mind reading sad things, either. (Yeah, I'm weird.) Nothing TOO sad though, y'know?

I don't always like writing sad things. It almost scares me. I'm the kind of person that crying...it comes at the wrong times, when I'm stressed or not unbearably sad, and I can barely cry when I'm actually sad. Honestly, crying is a strane thing for me.

But sometimes I'm scared of writing something sad, like a death scene, for example. That just plain scares me. I don't want to cry, and it's almost like I'm scared of putting too much emotion into it. I can be a very emotional person, but also rather blank on the outside, preferring not to show people what I'm feeling.

I tend to be like that when it comes to writing. I'm so scared that I'll break down, or pour too much of my heart into it and just end up being hurt...the death/sad scenes I write will turn out stiff and unnatural.

That's something I have to work on myself as a writer.

If you're like me, maybe that's something you have to work on too. Either way, you need to work on the sad things in your writing.

To quote Albus Dumbledore: "This proves you are still human!" (Or rather, a writer, eh? ;))

NOTE: I thought I published this last night, but I guess I didn't. That's why there wasn't a daily thought yesterday. The other two, I was awfully busy and didn't have time. :/

Happy writing!

-Autumn