Subconscious Journey

Recently I wrote about how we as authors will sometimes not only take inspiration from our own lives to use in our stories but we can also create emotions and scenarios that we feel may be missing giving us a vicarious experience. In all honesty I am not sure which I do more of but I can say for sure that in every book I write there is a reflection of not only what I have and am but of what I want.

What about when reality becomes overwhelming though. What happens when you want something you can never have or your personal life is in shatters but you are expected to create? That is after all what we do, we create. When you want something completely out of reach do you simply put it in the book so you can have it symbolically? What if it hurts to much to know you can never possess it physically? Do you inject the pain of loss or the need and desire you feel so that others can share in your frustrations? What if your personal life does not currently reflect in your story? What then?

Today I am dealing with those same questions and so I am turning to my work in a different way. I am relinquishing myself to my characters and their will. I am giving them free reign to tell me about what is happening, what they want and need. I am at their mercy because dealing with reality is daunting today and I need an escape. More now than anytime in the recent past I need to spend time somewhere else.

As writers most of us are avid readers. We enjoy taking the journey with the characters and seeing how those we share our craft with express their own points of view, beliefs and desires through the twists and turns of the plot. However as writers we are constantly taking journeys, not only with the creations we read but with the ones we make ourselves. We may give guidance at times but most would agree that to those of us that write, our characters are real. They take residence in our subconscious and join us in the conscious when they are feeling in a sharing mood.

We listen and tell the world their loves and losses, triumphs and defeats. We are not the creators so much as simply the medium through which they communicate with our world. I for one and grateful to them for because they exist I can get out of my own head and get out of mown way allowing them to take control while I merely join them for the ride.