Welcome to 40 Days of 3 Questions!
For the next few weeks, meet here every morning with a notebook or document to answer three questions about writing, about your status quo as a writer, or about the writing life. You can answer briefly and go about your day, or you can use this as a warm up exercise before your regular writing schedule. Whatever works for you, works for me.
Day 12 Questions
- Do you ever write something that is uncomfortable for you?
- Why do you write about this topic or experience?
- How do you feel after you write it?
You may post answers in comments or keep your thoughts private–your choice!
And here is today’s pretty picture:
Ramona DeFelice Long 
I feel that every word I write is uncomfortable for me. Writing reveals so much. But there is one topic in particular that I feel the need to write even though it makes me hurt inside. I’ve written several stories about a young boy committing suicide. I write about to clear it from my mind because I was with my friend when her son took his life. I don’t think I’ll ever publish them because I wouldn’t want her to read them. Even though it helps me to write, I feel guilty as though I am using her pain to further my craft.
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Oh, Kim. This is heart-breaking. But it sounds to me like you are being a bit hard on yourself. I suspect you are writing to better understand the experience and the situation — hers, and yours, because you had a valid experience of loss and pain and all that goes with that as well. Writing from our hearts, and for our hearts, is the truest and most honest, empathetic form of creative work. Will the time you put in also help you further your craft? Yes, no doubt, because any hard work would, esp one that touches such deep emotions; I think it’s our responsibility as artists to explore those places. I hope you can let that feeling of guilt go, maybe by writing about it, in the story or elsewhere.
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Thank you, Leslie. Maybe someday I will be able to put them out into the world.
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1.) Do you ever write something that is uncomfortable for you? Yes
2.) Why do you write about this topic or experience? That’s one way for me to come to terms with the few tragic events in my life.
3.) How do you feel after you write it? It’s a draining process, but I feel stronger after its on the page.
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1. Yes, often 2. To help me grow as a writer by getting out of my comfort zone. 3. If I do a good job, it gives me a lot of satisfaction.
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Do you ever write something that is uncomfortable for you? Occasionally, I will write a personal essay about something that is bothering me, usually something to do with my MS.
Why do you write about this topic or experience? I try not to talk about it or complain. People ask “How are you?” and I say “Okay” because no one wants to listen to a perpetual complainer. But sometimes you have to whine and get it off your chest.
How do you feel after you write it? Usually better. I don’t know that I’ll ever publish these, but the act of writing it down frees me a little bit, gets it off my shoulders, and let’s me continue on without wanting to complain so much.
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In some ways I am always uncomfortable. Writing as a expert or someone with experience about things I do not have mastery of, or experience of, makes me deeply uncomfortable, even though it is fiction. Writing about things that make me uncomfortable emotionally is something I often do. It helps me confront those things.
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***Do you ever write something that is uncomfortable for you?
No, not in my fiction. Only in my journal and in personal messages to others. If it’s uncomfortable for me, it will be the same for my readers and I don’t want that. Of course, some of what is comfortable for me may not be the same for everyone.
I see that I’m in the minority here. I think if I were to write non-fiction, or to ever get serious about a memoir or autobiography, that would be vastly different.
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Do you ever write something that is uncomfortable for you? Not yet.
Why do you write about this topic or experience? If I did face something that was uncomfortable to write about, there would have to be a compelling reason for me to write about it.
How do you feel after you write it? My first thought is that it would be cathartic, but that would probably not be all.
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1. Do you ever write something that is uncomfortable for you?
2. Why do you write about this topic or experience?
3. How do you feel after you write it?
Occasionally. How else would I find the emotional hook in a story, something that makes it worth reading and writing? That doesn’t mean it has to make the reader uncomfortable, although in writing my stand-alone, which isn’t “cozy,” I’ve come to really appreciate the squirm factor, because if a scene makes me squirm, it’s probably hitting an emotional truth, and has a chance of evoking a similar reaction for my reader. In the cozies, I want to evoke a similar emotional recognition for the reader, but maybe without the squirm!
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