“I bet you’re a great
writer. You probably have great stories to tell.”
Someone
said this to me while discussing what I do and don’t believe in when it comes
to religion (that’s a story for another day). I’ve been through some rough
times when I was younger. I won’t go into detail; no one needs to know what I’ve
been through. All you need to know is that it was bad enough to never wish it
upon my worst enemy.
I’m a
writer, if you couldn’t tell. But just because what happened to me, happened to
me, doesn’t mean I want to share it with everyone else through fiction. Granted,
it probably would make a great story, but I would never want to drag my readers
through the emotional ride my life has been. Not only that, but I feel like if
I wrote what happened to me into a story, I’m immortalizing those who did what
they did to me. They don’t deserve to make an appearance in my future after
what they did to me in my past.
I don’t
write stories to please my potential readers, I write because I have the gifts
of creativity and imagination. I write because it makes me happy. I write
because sometimes it takes the pain away. I write because there are lives I can
create, personalities I can choose, and characters I can love. I write because
I can create this imaginary life where nothing of what happened to me happened
to me.
So, no,
I don’t have great stories to tell, because those stories have already been
told. I tell the stories of the unknown parts of my existence. I tell the
stories of the life I wish I had, instead of the life I have. I create
characters based off of certain characteristics I lack, because it makes me
feel like I’m living both lives instead of just the one that didn’t go the way
I planned.
To sum
up my little rant, I’ll leave you with the wise words of Joss Whedon:
“I
write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I
write to explore all the things I’m afraid of.”
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