Recently, writer Sean Ferrell wrote a wonderful post titled "Pathetic email", where he gives encouragement to a writer friend of his about feeling "small", saying maybe it isn't such a bad thing. As he explains:
After completing a book you won't be the person you were before trying to write it, not if you've done it right. There's real fear in that, and we're all small before that task, to clear out enough of yourself so they [the characters] can move in, and to do it not with accolades or rewards but for the honest truth that it has to be done and who else will do it. You're supposed to be scared. The fact you are feeling small means you're in the right place: it means you care. If you didn't care it would have no power over you.
He mentions a Winnie the Pooh story I'd forgotten, where Owl loses his home in a storm, and Eeyore finds him the perfect new home. Unfortunately it's the one that already belongs to Piglet. Piglet graciously, and heroically, gives up his beloved home to Owl. Just reading about it made me ache for Piglet's sacrifice.
When we can feel a character's pain, our own heart opens up a bit more. We know what it costs him to give up something he cherishes, and we know how it's going to hurt when he does it. We might even think, "He couldn't possibly do that", since it means so much to him. We feel that pang in our own hearts, and wonder if we would be that compassionate or generous, hoping that we would be, and also hoping we'll never be put to the test.
Instead, we get to experience it vicariously, with a character that is faced with a terrible choice like that. It makes us feel a bit more heroic when we go through this situation with a character. We've somehow grown when they have. Maybe we're braver than we realized. Maybe we're not as small as we originally thought.
And maybe there's a lot more to this writing thing than we could have imagined when we sat down to put words on paper. No wonder it scares the heck out of us.
There doesn't have to be any specific meaning underlying a story of two people falling in love, or fighting off villains, or whatever your story may contain. But there's something to be said for giving a reader the opportunity to expand their worldview, or increase their emotional capacity, or experience something that would never come into their sphere if it weren't for the book you've written.
From the moment we write them down, our words are intended to find a new home: with readers who treasure the characters and story as much as we do. It doesn't matter that we felt small and inconsequential during the story's creation, or that we were consumed with doubts, and dread, and dire fear.
What really matters is that we found a heroic way to overcome all of those things, so our stories could end up where they were meant to be all along.
Beautiful post, Donna! This is EXACTLY what I needed to hear this morning. I'm bookmarking this so I can read it whenever I'm feeling doubtful...and small. Thank you and hope you are well!
Posted by: Harmony Ann Evans | December 16, 2011 at 10:38 AM
Thank you! I'm glad it resonated with you. I felt the same about Sean Ferrell's post, and it inspired this one. :)
I hope you're doing well too!
Posted by: Donna Cummings | December 16, 2011 at 11:11 AM
Love this! Very inspiring...how'd you do that? :)
I've lost my wordiness because this is just perfect.
Thanks.
Posted by: Melissa | December 16, 2011 at 02:30 PM
LOL, Melissa -- I didn't mean to take your words from you. :) I'm glad you liked it!
Posted by: Donna Cummings | December 16, 2011 at 02:48 PM
Oh, don't worry. LOL I'm finding lots of words for my story and I'm just loving the idea of feeling "small" after writing it. :)
Posted by: Melissa | December 16, 2011 at 03:26 PM
Do you think that there might be an analogy with method acting, where an actor thinks themselves into the role of their character and then draws on their own emotions and experience to portray that character.
If so then I can see that the writing process could indeed change you, enlarging perspective and perhaps probing depths that could be black and forbidding.
But for the darkest depths there are correspondingly dazzling heights and for the romance writer there is always the HEA.
Donna, I feel sure that keeping the thread of humour in your stories will always protect your soul from the ravishes of writing fortune! *smile*
Posted by: Quantum | December 16, 2011 at 04:42 PM
Melissa, does that mean you'll shrink after getting your wordcount done? LOL I like that idea!
Posted by: Donna Cummings | December 16, 2011 at 05:07 PM
Q, I think it's very similar, for both the writer AND the reader. It's one reason I tend to avoid things that are too dark, but you're right -- I gravitate towards the humor, which makes life sunny again. :) Hopefully it provides the same for those who read my stories. I would hate if it didn't!
Posted by: Donna Cummings | December 16, 2011 at 05:09 PM