Advice for Writers

Channeling raw emotion: How to take that b***h Heroin and own her...

I know from experience that writing about our demons and our problems helps us to conquer them.  What follows, are some of  my observations and opinions that can help other writers.

I have found that the best way to take control of our raw experiences is to manipulate the truth. 

Good writers manipulate the truth in its most direct sense of the word, in the same way a sculptor manipulates a hunk of raw clay to produce a masterpiece. 

Us writers... well, our clay is our words and emotions.  

Our lives, and especially the more horrid parts of our lives, are chunks of raw emotional clay which hold the potential for a masterpiece. 

When we're angry in the real world, we rant and rave and kick and scream and tell everyone that will listen our problems.

When we mold our fiction to take charge of our demons, we have to paint scenes and show our reader the heart and soul of our learned experiences. This is how we own the characters and demons that haunt us. 

What if I have a heroin addiction?  What if I turned heroin into a woman? 

What if I give her lines that tempt me away from my wife and children and everything good in my life? 

With my writing, I can cast a spell and suddenly own her, the b***h called Heroin.  I can give her lines of dialogue where she tempts me and seduces me into the embrace of her livid legs spread open and filled with poison honey. "Hey sugar, can I come over, I want to make you feel good. So, so good."  

With my writing, I can make her the ruination of my life or I can show how I overcome that temptation-- or how my characters do it.  I can use my characters to deny that b***h Heroin. 

Then, a week after I dumped that broad, I heard about it in the news. 

Heroin was beat to death with a hammer along with her lover.  They were found in bed in a motel room, bashed to bloody pulp.  The man responsible for the brutal double homicide was Heroin's jealous ex-boyfriend.

Boy, aren't I glad I left that crazy chick just in the nick of time?  That could have been me in that bed, mashed to a bloody pulp.

All of this was just an example, one writer's opinion and suggestion. I took it as a teaching moment because as a writer you have such raw emotion, I think you can take that emotion and make it yours by force; you can have dominion over all your weaknesses and embarrassing or terrible experiences. You have the potential to make masterpieces with them.  

Always show the reader the feelings and let us see it through scene, action, dialogue. You can do it!

Reviews

[A.W. Carl]

Made me think- Not sure if I agree with all of it. I do agree that no matter what you write about, whether it directly represents something about your life or not, you are putting yourself on the page. Thanks for making me reflect!

[Archos]

Interesting and very readable on top of that. I'll try to make use of your advice.

[Marie]

An interesting conceptm though one I cannot follow. I am unable to write about my personal life, even disguised as fiction, and put no real emotion into my writing. Otherwise, I'm sure it would be better.

[Robert Vicens]

Because one chooses what to write, I think one cannot help "put oneself on the page". If we long for escape, we write of heroes in far off lands we long to live in. Or perhaps we're bored of life, so we write about being abducted by aliens. Or perhaps we hate what s***s the young girls are these days so we write of one that has honor.

I think we can have a lot of fun with it if we play on purpose. For example, if one hates one's mother in law. Let's call her Harry and give him a little penis. Then throw him off the overpass and onto ongoing traffic.

[Marie]

Well yes, that sounds like fun....

[Woody]

a very interesting write. thank you for this piece of advice.

[wordman]

a potters touch,you mold your words, as clay
the theme of the write, was impressive

[Harley Sapphire]

Love your comparison of writing and clay! Thank you for posting some good advice!

[Ben Noah Suri]

Good advice which I guess most of us follow. We escape from the pain, the frustration and the suffering by fictionalising an object, a person or an incident with our own spin