Words and Broken Bits

An old post recently drew my attention. It was posted way back in 2013 after I started the blog in the fall of 2012. It was titled Face the Fear with Your Confident Face in Place. Back then, I was terrified of putting my writing out into the blogosphere just as I shied away from city driving. To an extent, I still face that fear, but there is now a flip side to that coin. I am now even more aware of the magic and power in words. They contain a unique ability to impact our minds, hearts, and actions.

And words on the page have even more power behind them than things spoken as there are no filters between the words and our thoughts. It’s like magic, telepathy, we read them and instantly they’re inside our heads, floating around and rubbing shoulders with all our other thoughts. To one degree or another, they’re bound to leave a bit of themselves behind.

As a writer, this truth is humbling. Not only am I risking others’ feedback – kind or unkind – but I’m going to leave an impact on every single one of my readers. It might not be a huge impact, but it’s still rubbing shoulders with their other thoughts. My hope then is that, with every book I write, the thoughts I foster inside others’ heads are more loving. Even if it’s with tears or hard truths.

Here’s a confession. I don’t feel up to such a task. I’m a little broken, a little scared, and desperately hoping for perfection in my work when perfection is an illusion. As I face this reality, I’m reminded of Roosevelt’s quote “The Man in the Arena.” It talks about being in the arena with dust and sweat and blood on your face but knowing in the end that, even if you failed, you failed while daring greatly. Instead of perfection, I’ll strive and pray that what I put out into the world brings a measure of hope and joy. And if there’s dust on my face, that just means I’m in the arena and daring greatly instead of living in fear.

All these deep thoughts…and I mostly write adventure books. Simple stories.

But as I step back from editing the most recent one, Zap Dragon, I’m reminded the broken bits aren’t always bad. The dragon in the story has its issues just like I do. But sometimes our broken pieces help us understand those around us and sometimes that brokenness is the very thing that helps others.

Blessings,

Jennifer

P.S. Hidden Mythics II is still with my Alpha readers and Zap Dragon with Beta readers. It’s a holding pattern for now while fresh eyes get a look at each manuscript.