Fear. Nothing paralyzes or re-routes me like fear. Bungee jumping – not happening. Snakes – I’ll take the long way down the mountain. You get the point. So, while attending the VCFA writers’ retreat at Vermont College (huge shout out to Sarah Aronson and Cindy Faughnan for once again putting together an amazing retreat ) when speaker and author extraordinaire Jennifer Jacobson shared that I had to uncover where I wouldn’t go in my writing and then write about that, I did a double-take. What? Embrace fear. For years, I’ve been happily detouring around it. So now what?
Well, since I’m not writing a travel book about extreme sports or a reptile guide to hiking, I had to identify the fear that I’d been tiptoeing around. That didn’t take me long. I’m fairly well acquainted with the things that terrify me. So there it was. MISUNDERSTANDING. That’s what keeps me awake at night and makes me cringe in the middle of a movie. I loathe misunderstanding, misassumptions, and erroneous conclusions. Hate me, love me, I’m good either way. But, please don’t decide based on erroneous information.
So, I’m mid-revision and it’s clear that Eric needs to be misunderstood. People need to believe something about him that just isn’t true. Even if it pains me. And, guess what? I does pain me, but it’s working. Wrapping my arms around my fear is allowing me to emotionally connect with Eric on a whole new level. No re-routing. So thank you, Jennifer!
To those who are writing, rewriting, reimagining, I say take Jennifer’s advice and go ahead and embrace that place where your first instinct screams retreat. For those whom we write for, I say give it a try. Ask that girl to the prom, sit at that lunch table, raise your hand in class. Nothing gives us strength like wrapping our arms around what terrifies us.
This is SO right! (Sorry, Eric.)