Oh, you say. That's all well and good, but what's that to do with writing? (You may have a British accent in my head... 😜)One of the things I try to do with my writing is to describe pain and emotions in a very real and visceral way. I don't just say "her face turned red with anger". I say "rage crawled up her neck and over her ears, narrowing her vision and tightening the muscles in her neck and scalp".
Same emotion, but if you've ever been really pissed, you recognize the physical "symptoms" I've described in the second quote. I want people to be able to see what I write in terms of emotions and not just say "yeah, I've been mad". I want "OMG, that's just how it feels!"But the thing is, in order to do that, I have to not just feel things, I have to NOTICE what I'm feeling. I have to remember what muscles clench when I'm afraid, what temperature my hands are when I'm scared. I have to remember the full physical sensations of getting the breath knocked out of me. I have to pull back the sharp feeling of a cut.
I analyze my own traumas... for you, my readers. (Cue guilt-trip music and fade to black... lol)
Well stated! ... As writers (or as any creators of artistic work), we must absolutely allow our personal pains & triumphs become fodder for the beast. We bleed in public so that our audience can survive in private. <3
ReplyDeleteI do the same thing in my poetry. So much of what I go through is channelled into my poems, in the hope that people going through the same sorts of things will understand they're not alone, and so that those who never experience those things might be able to have empathy for those who do.
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