Face to Face

Coming Face to Face with Your(My)self

You may not expect to come face to face with yourself when writing fiction. After all, it is fiction. Though some writers may not come face to face with themselves, I’ve come to learn many do, and I’m one.

What do I mean by coming face to face with yourself? It starts out with random distraction, thoughts, emotions, and more distraction. Then, if you’re willing to see, clarity dawns. Clarity—what’s bad about that, you might ask? Oh, nothing. It’s all good. Clarity brought me face to face with the nebulous but just as real things like:

• How easily distracted I can be, especially, but not exclusively, with the eyes of a house dobby. (Look, there’s dust! What’s dust doing in wind-blown New Mexico? I just dusted yesterday. Look, a shiny thing! Must investigate. Should I do the laundry?)
• (Let’s call it) the flexibility continuum of my self-confidence. (What made me think I could switch from writing network security plans in governmentese to novels in real English? Who are Shrunk and White, again? )
• The naked truth of being worthy, or not to (do this writing thing, have the freedom to explore writing, or leave the security (pun intended) of my previous career?).
• Resistance. Yep, it’s a thing, even if you want to write and you like it. Seriously, there are books about it, like The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

And the inevitable reactions of the above when coming face to face with reality:

• What do they mean, writing is only 10% of getting a book published!?! What’s a platform?
• Editing is intense. Then there’s more editing. And more, more, more. (Must be time to put the medium colors in the washer. Where’s my sock? Maybe Super Spouse will pick something up for dinner.)

The Really Good News

The good news is that there are others—writers, artists, and compassionate other humans with clear intuition, empathy and intellect. I may not remember this during week three or so of not having left the office/house. Then, as if my good fairy has waved her magic wand, a text, email, call, or my spousal unit will remind me. Then, I again come face to face with who I am, why I am doing this, and that I love it.

New fiction author, Tanya D. Dawson, has written a story for the young adult in all of us. Her pending novel, Andersen Light: A Mystic Creek Novel [working title], brightens the sometimes dark world of YA and delivers the angst and the weird in this inspiring becoming-who-you-are adventure of mystery, intrigue, and mysticism grounded in today’s world. While Andersen Light: A Mystic Creek Novel is primarily set on the West Coast, Tanya lives and works in the American Southwest.