Cheating

Bowl.

Sing.

Ski.

Remember to add baking powder not baking soda to from-scratch baked goods.

Write the book from my dream.

Putt (at least without cheating).

This is just a short (and incomplete) list of things I can’t do. And that last one is a biggy. Not just because I can’t write that book, but because I’ve been avoiding any writing that gets too emotional. I prefer to dance around on the light, funny stuff and leave the down and dirty, makes me want to cry stuff for other writers.

But things have been popping up that want to be written. Ugly things. But I push them back down. I “drown” them. And I don’t think I have to tell you that drowning is a bad thing. My recent dream reinforces that.

I just realized that I’ve been writing and revising my current work-in-progress for almost four years. I’ve sent it out on submission a few times, mostly without confidence, because, while I feel that some parts of the work (voice, main character’s development, humor) are pretty good, the story doesn’t feel finished. Because I’m cheating.

I’m cheating myself. I’m cheating my story. I’m cheating my readers.

And aside from when I putt, I’m not cheater.

My plan is, maybe with the help of a really good writer-friend or some of the links below or maybe even a shrink, to go deeper into my emotional history to find the rest of my story. It scares the crap out of me, but I think it is the right thing to do. And maybe I’ll discover more stories along the way.

Links about Emotional Writing:

http://www.shirleyjump.com/article/item-194a3706-1ed5-4c63-8d0c-b0044e4a3ffa.aspx – Shirley Jump examines how word choice influences emotional tone

http://jamigold.com/2012/06/3-tips-for-writing-heavy-emotional-scenes/ – Jami Gold offers 4 tips for writing emotional scenes

http://tonyakappes.blogspot.com/2012/09/writing-with-emotion.html – Tonya Kappes discusses how to “show don’t tell” emotions

http://www.novelrocket.com/2012/06/dont-cheat-reader.html – Sally Apokedak shares a story about a book that skipped an emotional scene and how she felt as a reader