Some of you may know that I have discontinued my serial novel blog, Honor & Truth. I loved the characters, but the story was not going in the direction I envisioned. I’ve since scrapped the old work and am hard at work on a rewrite. I’ve been outlining using Scrivener (fun!) and the story that I always had in mind is taking shape. I am learning so much about my characters and by extension, I am also learning a lot about myself. There are two truths that resonate as I write.
1. The world out there scares me.
2. The conflict in my stories represents my fears.
Honor, my main character, is a tough young woman. She is a fighter. Honor is angry and stubborn and she makes a lot of bad choices. In short, she can be incredibly unlikable. Despite her bad traits, she believes in justice and is willing to fight for it. She is a rebel. Honor represents the way I wish people would/could be in the face of all of the injustices in our world.
I am notoriously uninformed. I am the last person to know about the “big thing” that’s been in the news for the last few days. That is purposeful. Not that I have an expectation that everything happening in the world will be hearts and roses and love and Kumbayah, but there is just so much ugliness.
Greedy murdering despots. Civil and national unrest where protesting becomes violent. Injustices and abuses against women and children. Wars of choice and not necessity. Racial and religious intolerance. Environmental destruction and impending catastrophe. Greed.
Evil abounds. While I do believe that there is far more good in this world than bad, this certainly is not the picture we get in the news.
I am much more keenly aware now, than I was when I started writing Honor & Truth, that this story is my catharsis. My Xanax. My way of calming the anxiety that the weight of this world’s problems create in my heart and mind.
Being fully aware of this, has made rewriting Honor & Truth that much more fulfilling.
I write about the things that scare me, even when I don’t know I am.
What truths has your writing revealed to you?















