The Struggle Is Real

This was a great YallWest panel where we got into the nitty gritty about books that feature tough stuff for the characters and how that impacts both the reader and writer. We talked a lot about vulnerability, how it’s essential for authors to have it because this is where the good stuff lies. This brought to mind one of my novels that’s coming out next year, Bad Romance, because it was so closely linked to experiences I had in my own adolescence: an abusive boyfriend, financial woes, a family breaking apart.

We talked about how our books make us—and our readers—cry. I remembered how I was writing the death of a character I loved. It was three in the morning and I’m crying and then the theme song for Schindler’s List comes on my playlist and that is about the time I lost it. When you’re writing about tough stuff—death, abuse, depression and the like—you have to be willing to bring your vulnerability to the table.

For me, the most important thing about weaving serious issues into your novel is to be specific. Specificity is what will make those issues authentic for your character and it’s what will create an emotional impact for the reader. You might ask yourself how the death of your character and those who grieve him or her is particular to the characters and the world you’ve created. How would your protagonist cry? Because she’s going to cry in a way that…