Wednesday, March 14, 2012

WIPlash Wednesdays~On Being a #Writer I'm a Bit #Touched & #Changed

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.
~E.L. Doctorow~
My sister has provided me with a few more questions to answer as a writer and I'm going to answer these over a few weeks. The first question I'll tackle is—

"In what way does being a writer touch and change your life?"

I'm not sure there's a truly straight-forward answer to this question, though I do believe that being a writer does affect me with every new character I bring to life. It offers me an opportunity to see the world through different eyes and I suppose one of the things that touches me most is being able to see the growth and exploration in my characters, their emotions and the depth of the stories. As I write, and as they take on realistic personalities, I feel I do grow and change right along with them.

Even when I write characters who are as different from me as night and day, I feel I learn more about myself that I didn't know before. Writing gives me room for growth and exploration within my own world and helps me understand myself better, to know what's at the heart of me.

Circumstances I've written into my stories have touched me and changed how I view myself as a woman, a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister. It changes how I view my place in the world, how I cope with issues that are personal to me, but not all of it is reflected outward so much as inward and emotionally.

I think, for me at least, writing is a very important necessity in my life because it satisfies my emotional, and oftentimes, intellectual needs and educates me on various levels I'm not able to within my normal everyday life.

Truly my characters are pieces of me. Not in the full sense of the world, but if E.L. Doctorow's quote at the top speaks truth to me, I might well be a bit touched and changed, if not a little mad, but then aren't we all?
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On the writing front, I haven't written any more or less than last WIPlash Wednesday. I thought I would get some work done last week, but ended up helping my husband while he rested and recovered from having his dental procedure and helped him figure out foods he could eat. He goes back to work today, so I'm hoping, that even with one kid home with the flu, I should be able to carve out some time to work on that scene I left hanging involving my hero, his mother, his brothers and the news of the reappearance of their deadbeat abusive father who hasn't been around since they were small children.

Keep your fingers crossed for me. I would like to get some serious word count down for this today. ;)

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