Saturday

How to Write Empowering Stories


Life is full of different scenarios and most of us experience the emotions that come with them. While I may not have the same experiences as you or the guy down the street, we're all human and will feel most or all of the emotions that human beings are prone to, at least once in our lives. Some of these emotions may include: joy, despair, anger, rage, frustration, anxiety, contentment, worry, and fear.

Some experiences may be awesome—they'll make us look at life and be thankful for what we have and who we share our journeys with. Other situations may be terrible, horrible, no good, very-bad day experiences. :)

While I believe that no matter what life throws at us—we control our own destinies; I have also experienced and have come to understand, that life can throw us curve balls that leave us blindsided. We can't control the crappy decisions others make that effect us or those around us, but we can control our reactions to them. If we're writers, we can use our crappy experiences to change someone else's outlook on their current situation—or even their life in general.

I was raised to believe that if we think positively, then positive things will happen. This also came with the counter idea that if we think negatively, then negative things will happen. Obviously, we're going to have times where it's hard to look at a situation and be positive lol. However, we can take those experiences and use them to breathe life into a new plot and storyline, by using the situations we encountered and the emotions we felt from them, to create a journey through words that may inspire someone else.

I love characters that overcome fear, because I can relate really well with them. I lived in fear for most of my life, until I decided that I was tired of it. That I was tired of my past dictating my present and my future. I've come a long way in facing those fears and not letting them rule over how I live my life today; but, there are still some things that I may read or hear about that paralyze me with fear for a few seconds, until I'm able to think rationally through my thoughts. But like I said, I try not to let fear dictate the decisions I make today; instead, I come up swinging.

As you read the novels I've written (once I'm satisfied with them enough to share those precious pieces of myself to the world), you'll see that many of my protagonists are females that struggle with fear in some way. It may be that they're forced into a situation that they feel they have no control over and they're afraid of what the future holds for them, or it may be that something horribly tragic has happened to them and they're trying to learn how to live life after the fact. But my goal is never to present to you a damsel in distress, because I don't believe that someone should ever allow themselves to take on such a title—even in a situation where they would have every right to. No, I believe in kicking the ass (excuse my English, I'm just a little passionate about this subject) of whoever would try and put someone into a situation that would cause them to distress in the first place. I believe in fighting back and snatching control right out of that person or situation's hands. I believe in justice and that's why I write.

Don't get me wrong, my stories aren't sad and tragic lol. They are full of what-if situations, characters that people can relate with, and crappy decisions that other characters make, who choose to be selfish. But they're not tragic. Like I said, I believe we make our own destinies and that includes taking the bad and turning them around for good. I hope that when you read my books you'll see what I'm talking about and that my writing will even cause you to laugh, cry, get angry over, and ultimately—see hope for overcoming your own struggles in life. I hope that the plot and storyline of my novels will cause you to root for the protagonist and other relatable characters and that, in turn, it'll cause you to root for yourself.

So, to sum all of this up: use what you've experienced—what you know, to write a story that will be relatable to someone else (seeing that we're all human and experience joy, fear, anger, and anxiety, at least once in our lives), and that it'll inspire them to shake their fist at life and to fight back.

There are power in words; so take your experiences and write them in such a way that they'll be used to change someone's life. :)

-Heather

1 comment:

  1. I like this...a lot. I've been through some stupid situations that I could've avoided, but was dumb enough to not get out when I could've. I've journaled about this stuff bug I hadn't thought about trying to use my past as a way to encourage someone else. I guess good could come out of my baggage. Thanks for writing this! -Amelia

    ReplyDelete