Writing Through Fear

This quote by Natalie Goldberg has gotten me thinking about my writing a lot lately. Where am I going with my work? What is my purpose in my writing? So many thoughts and questions.

The novel I’ve been working on is stalled. I’m not sure where to go with it. I’ve been reading Annie Dillard’s, “The Writing Life” and one of the her thoughts is that when this happens, something is fractured in the story. There is something wrong with it.

Am I being too nice in my writing? The main character in my novel is a teen who has lost everything, which as you can imagine, changes her world. Apparently as I’ve reached the halfway point, I have been helping her heal. This is a good thing in my day job but not so much for my writing. No one will want to read that.

I have a thought in my head that I’m not too sure where it came from. I am picturing one of my writer friends saying it. “Its my job to put my MC up in a tree and then throw rocks at her.”

It sounds funny but appears to be true.

So for the next few weeks I will be looking at my novel and my MC. I will be looking at characterization and plot. I actually have an outline that will still work, I just need to figure out where I became derailed. It will be interesting.

Do you write what disturbs you? Do you have the courage to write the deepest fears?