Why do you write like that?

Writing.  A mode of creativity and catharsis I enjoy partaking in.  It's a way to get your feelings out, calm your busy brain down, or rev it up.  But sometimes, writing can get a bit morbid.  Why am I bringing up writing?  Because sometimes, that's how I write.

Now, I don't mean I write emo poetry or suicide notes as a joke, I mean that I write about adult subjects and situations (drugs, abuse, rape, mental illness, death, etc...).


I was at Masterpiece this past week and they had a creative writing mini workshop that I attended.  It was just a one-hour class, but I figured it would be an hour of my time well spent.

In this little class, we were focusing on character creation; we were to find an object in the room and quickly base a character off of that item.  For example, my friend created a chemist character because of some burlap she saw, another girl wrote an altered timeline story based off a can of Mountain Dew.  Me?  I based it off a necklace I was wearing and a bracelet the instructor was wearing.

I created a character named Boaz.  He has an abusive mother and his father committed suicide.  He also has autism.  His best friend, Priscilla, likes to play music with him since they both play a couple instruments.  Boaz tries to be out of the house and away from his mom as much as possible.  His favorite places to be are in the park at night when it's quiet, cool, and dark, and the peaceful coffee shop down the street.

As you can see, I wrote a couple morbid things into this character: an abusive parent, a mental handicap, a dead parent, and suicide.


There's another character I have, Ruby, that I've been developing for over a year now, and lemme tell ya, she has quite a tragic story.

She has anxiety, depression, and PTSD.  She was conceived by rape so she never knew her father, and her mother died when she was quite young.  Not only was she conceived by rape, but she was also sexually and physically abused all throughout college.  But there was one major event in Ruby's life that really made me realize how gruesome my writing can be.

I send Ruby's story to my friend, Kiana, because I ain't publishing this story online, but I ain't keeping it to myself neither.  Kiana loves it!  She also went to Masterpiece this past week and also attended the creative writing workshop.

As the class was sharing about their characters they had created, Kiana brought Ruby up and how relatable she felt Ruby was.  But she also brought up the fact that Ruby's child was killed before it was born.  Long story short, Ruby was pregnant but got stabbed in the stomach, therefore killing the baby.

When Kiana told the instructor this, the instructor, a published author, gasped and looked at me in horror!  Luckily, the conversation turned away from my morbid writing, thus saving me some embarrassment.  Now, I'm not saying Kiana embarrassed me, I love the fact that she loves my story so much she wanted to share it!  What embarrassed me was the fact that the instructor was disgusted by my story line.

But this got me thinking, "why do I write like this?".  Why do I write characters that have attempted suicide?  Why do I write characters that have eating disorders?  Why do I write characters that are handicapped?  Let me tell you.

I know how powerful a fictional character can be.  I mean, I'm writing a series on the power of characters and publishing it here on my blog!  But I think one of the most powerful aspects of fictional characters, is their ability to make us emotionally connect with them.

Why do we connect with them?  Have you been reading my blog posts?!  We relate to characters because we see ourselves in them.  And that's exactly why I write morbidly.  I want someone with autism to read my story and go "hey, they're like me,".  I want someone who has had their child die read my story and say, "Wow, she went through that too,".  I want someone with depression to read my story and say, "they have hope, so do I,".

I write morbidly, not so I can gross people out or start a national controversy, but so people in bad situations have a character they can look at and say, "wow, they're just like me and they made it out okay, and so will I,".  It's to give people with no light, hope.

The Power of Characters pt. 2: a look inside

Someone once said, "what you hate in other people, is what you hate in yourself,".  Now I have literally no clue who actually said that, but I do know that that phrase is completely true, especially when it comes to least favorite characters.

Draco Malfoy, Tony Stark, JarJar Binks, we all hate them!  Or, at least have some general distaste for them.   But why?  Why do we dislike these fictional people that never existed?  Maybe it's because we see a reflection of ourselves in them.

I the first part of this series, I talked about how we like characters because we see ourselves in them, so why am I now saying that relating to a character makes us dislike a character?  Well, in protagonists or likable villains, we see positive traits that we have in common with them, we see difficult situations that we see them overcome and think we can do the same thing.  But with antagonists or irritating character, we see bad habits turned evil doings, dark paths that cannot be followed back to the light, and dark hearts that cannot be redeemed.

As I said last time, we could be subconsciously projecting a character's life as our own.  So, if we see horrible villains with similar traits as ourselves, we could just be thinking we're headed down the same path and are irredeemable.

But, you could also hate an antagonist if they are hurting the protagonist you see yourself in.  What you're saying could be, "hey!  Stop bullying Harry Potter!  He's great!" but what you're really meaning is this: "hey!  Stop bullying me!  I'm not that bad!".  It's an internal longing to be accepted or liked, or to possibly stop being picked on.

What characters do you see the most of yourself in?  Are they good or bad?  Do you like or hate them?  Which character is the most accurate mirror that gives you a look inside?

This really irks me: what men and women can't do

Okay, we all know that men and women have been fighting for equal rights among the genders (whether it be in a good or bad way).  But, even with all the protests, petitions, and progress we've made over the decades, there are still many injustices when it comes to gender equality, against both men and women.

"What?  Men don't experience any gender inequalities!" Ha!  That's where you're wrong!  Not to mention, saying that a man doesn't experience inequality because he's a man, is indeed sexist.

Anyway, there are many inequalities both genders experience, but there are two that really irk me...

WOMEN ARE ALMOST REQUIRED TO TAKE OFF THEIR CLOTHES TO LOOK "SEXY"

Okay, look at this picture (yes, I am very aware that is Sebastian Stan, get over it).  Anyway, it's just a dude, in a bathtub, fully clothed and he STILL LOOKS SEXY!  If a woman did this, she'd be called ridiculous or crazy.  Honestly, I think this is extremely unfair.  Most of the time, girls have to strip half-naked to be called "sexy" while men usually don't.  I think it would be just super if women could sit in bathtubs fully clothed and be drooled over.


MEN ARE CONSIDERED "WIMPS" IF THEY EXPRESS THEMSELVES EMOTIONALLY

A lot of the time men are not allowed to cry because that makes them "less masculine".  No, no it doesn't, it makes you human.

I find it very sad that men can't just let go, have a good cry, then feel better afterward.  They have to keep it in, bottle it up, and save face just so they aren't made fun of.

men can't even say "I love you" to their best friend, their brotha from anotha motha without being called gay or having to blatantly say "no homo".

LET MEN CRY!