The #writingfriendschallenge on day 16 inspired me to write this post. The question was “What gives you writing inspiration"?
If you watched my reel on Instagram that day you heard that that question has a two-part answer. The first part is music. I don’t think it is possible to describe how much music means to me and the power it holds in my life. Music has always been my constant. My go to in times of sadness, anger, happiness, or whatever hell I was feeling at that moment.
Music has the power to turn my frown upside down, or to send me into a deep emotional chest hurting sadness, even though I may have been having the best day ever. I don’t have a favorite genre (although artists like Lewis Capaldi and Halsey know how to get me every time). But I like any artist that can make me feel the emotions they are singing about in their songs.
That is the same thing I go for in my books. I want people to feel everything as deeply as I did in writing it. I want to invoke that deep emotion that leaves you feeling with the same heartache or the same love that the main character just experienced.
The second part to my answer is the content. It is so important to me that my books spark conversation. Ideally my books would be apart of a book club and everyone talks about the main themes and how they felt.
I cover heavy topics. It's why I have content warnings associated with each book. But even though books are meant to be entertaining (and I hope mine are) I also think it's important to learn and grow as people while reading them.
Not everyone deals with the same struggle. And if they happen to relate to the struggle of my MC, they may not cope with that struggle in the same way. It is important to me that a light is shined on these topics so that people can have a glimpse into the realistic side of the struggles that affect so many people in this world.
So many times book, shows and movies romanticize things in a way that can be dangerous to people who aren’t apart of that, and who may not know any better.
One example is toxic relationships. While many of us know that passionate, crazy, sometimes toxic love is fun and exciting to watch or read about. Others may not understand that those relationships are not always healthy.
You can’t always fix people. Your love for them is not a cure all. People have to want to help themselves. They have to get better. It is not your job to change them. I think sometimes when people have this flooded into them via books and tv, they have unrealistic expectations on how relationships should be, and what love really should be like.
Love is hard. Relationships are hard. They take work. They take growth. But there is a point that it can become unhealthy for one or both of the people even if both want it to work so badly.
Realistic books fascinate me because I want to see things from someone else’s point of view. I want to experience a life through someone else so that I can better understand and empathize with their struggle. Because real people like them exist and I want to have more compassion for the people I meet and be less judgmental of them.
But I also hear a lot where people talk about books being an escape from reality and I get that too. It is definitely a preference. I write the books that I’ve always wanted to read. I write realistic relatable characters, in a realistic life, struggling with very real additions and mental illnesses.
I never imaged my books would lead me down the paths they have. The deeper understanding of things I could never wrap my head around before. I’ve always been a very empathetic person. But my empathy was sometimes limited by the world around me in what I had been taught about people. I let others judgmental views affect how I saw other people’s problems. Those stigma’s that are still so horribly prevalent in our society.
My inspiration is to either help change your view on the people around you/who you meet. Or to change your view on how you see yourself. If you are struggling or have struggled it is important to me for you to know you are not alone and that there are people who understand and love you. Keep fighting and keep growing. You got this!
One of my biggest and most long-term goals I have is to change the world. It seems silly. It seems idealistic of someone like me who is usually a very realistic and grounded person. But I feel that my books were meant to be written. And maybe they won’t be consumed by the masses. But the possibility that there may be one person out there who will read them, that sparks a small change that leads to big ones. (If you've ever seen "Pay it Forward" this is my view on things in life). If you haven't, you should really check it out.
We never know who we are affecting in life. It is why being kind is so utterly important. Every day we have the ability to change the world. I just hope that my books do as I intend them to and make that happen.