Come
one, come all, to Jamie's Circus of Fear!
Actually no, there probably won't be anything too scary here. As an amateur
blogger, as in 'I have never before even contemplated doing this in my life
ever at all period', there is a lot to be afraid of on the internet. Am I doing this wrong? Are people better than I am? Am I just one more anonymous stream of data
racing from one system to the next?
Of course, the answer to all of these things is a resounding yes. And of course, like anything on the internet, that's a total lie. Your internet identity is as unique as you are – but I digress. That's a post for another day.
Let's
get personal. Fear is something that
lives in our hearts right next to happiness and bacon. Scientists will tell you that fear is all in the
mind, and while this is true, it sure doesn't feel like it. Fear is heavy and dark and larger than the
Empire State Building. It hovers over
you like a persistent hummingbird or a very angry gorilla. Fear is the sharks beneath our feet, hiding
in our shadows and chasing us away from our dreams.
Or, if
you're a writer, toward them. Writing,
much like life, is a battle. Against the
paper, the pen, the words in your brain, and your brain itself. Most of
us are afraid of some part of the process; I know I am. Writing fears are easy, as fears go, because
writing is a space without boundaries.
No story is quite the same, no voice has quite the same timbre or
pitch.
The
great thing about being a writer, or any other type of artist, is that we have
the perfect arena for facing our fears.
A novel. A painting. An abstract jumble of junkyard metal that can
only be described as Neo-Cthulu. Every
day that we step into that arena to do battle with the vicious Work-In-Progress
monster, we shout to the sky that "You
will not have my soul."
So tell
me, what are your fears? Do you
incorporate them into your stories and characters? Do you embrace them or destroy them?
