Nice Enough for Publishing (and Parenthood)
Last week, I became "mom" to two absolutely adorable children. Technically, my kiddo's are still in foster care, but we've been selected as their forever family. A big part of the adoption process involves the agency (in my case DHS) getting to know the family, so the right kids can be matched with the right family. Early in our home study process, I gave my social worker a copy of Counting to D.
I have a lot in common, personality wise, with Sam and figured reading my fiction would be a better way to get to know me than asking a lot of generic questions. The plan worked, sort of. My social worker loved my book, and me, and helped match us with aforementioned adorable children. But she didn't view my book as an example of what I must have been like as a teen, or proof that I'm a very creative person. She took it as evidence of my remarkable empathy.
I am very empathetic it real life. It's easy for me to relate to other people and see things from their point of view. That is one of the biggest reasons why I wanted to adopt foster children. But, it's also one of the reasons why I'm a good writer.
Fiction in general, and YA in particular, is all about the feels. Emotions are huge! Writing emotionally charged scenes that the reader can empathize with, and then weaving them together into something that resembles a plot is basically 90% of my job. Okay, maybe only 70%. But it's big.
I'm not only empathetic, I'm also creative. I enjoy making up stories. That is the personality trait I've always viewed as the driving force behind my desire to become make a career out of writing. But I've realized my social worker was onto something. Empathy is just as important, if not more important, than creativity.
Writers need to be able to understand emotion, even if they haven't felt it personally, and describe it in a believable way. That is what writers do. We're an empathetic group. That's probably why I always have so much fun when I hang out with other authors.
So are you nice enough to be a writer? Or a parent? I'm glad that I'm both, 'cause right now I LOVE both om my jobs. And love is a very strong emotion, that I feel and recognize in others.
I have a lot in common, personality wise, with Sam and figured reading my fiction would be a better way to get to know me than asking a lot of generic questions. The plan worked, sort of. My social worker loved my book, and me, and helped match us with aforementioned adorable children. But she didn't view my book as an example of what I must have been like as a teen, or proof that I'm a very creative person. She took it as evidence of my remarkable empathy.
I am very empathetic it real life. It's easy for me to relate to other people and see things from their point of view. That is one of the biggest reasons why I wanted to adopt foster children. But, it's also one of the reasons why I'm a good writer.
Fiction in general, and YA in particular, is all about the feels. Emotions are huge! Writing emotionally charged scenes that the reader can empathize with, and then weaving them together into something that resembles a plot is basically 90% of my job. Okay, maybe only 70%. But it's big.
I'm not only empathetic, I'm also creative. I enjoy making up stories. That is the personality trait I've always viewed as the driving force behind my desire to become make a career out of writing. But I've realized my social worker was onto something. Empathy is just as important, if not more important, than creativity.
Writers need to be able to understand emotion, even if they haven't felt it personally, and describe it in a believable way. That is what writers do. We're an empathetic group. That's probably why I always have so much fun when I hang out with other authors.
So are you nice enough to be a writer? Or a parent? I'm glad that I'm both, 'cause right now I LOVE both om my jobs. And love is a very strong emotion, that I feel and recognize in others.
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And yes I agree with you being an empathetic writer. The emotions that you've captured in retrospect to Sam and the life around her is really very sharp and striking, and the readers can easily feel up to those emotions!