Writing What You Need to Hear

I sat across from my friend, sharing what I wanted to do with my WWI historical fiction plot bunny. I told her I wanted to make it about a writer; a trench soldier; a young man bombarded by trauma who doesn’t understand why, desperately wanting healing for himself and others. But then he begins to see parallels between his role as a writer and between God. He begins to see he’s a character in a bigger story. He begins to understand, if only a little.

But I’m afraid. I’m afraid to delve into spiritual themes, to get it wrong. But more than that, I’m afraid to make it preachy. I’m afraid to turn readers away from a potentially healing story because instead of bandages and stitches, it’s a 2 x 4 plank of wood that I’m beating over their heads.

I can’t stand a story that speaks about Christianity in stale terms, as if there’s only one right way to incorporate faith into fiction. I hate it when novels try too hard to make a point, becoming more of a handbook that tries to force me to change instead of a story that inspires me to change. I hate that my stories have turned out like both examples before.

Were my ideas for the WWI novel too preachy? Would I be able to pull it off? Would people find the story believable? Or would it seem like the author is just trying to make a point?

“Write what you need to hear, Liberty,” my friend said.

Write what I need to hear. Write what speaks to me. Write what brings me healing. Write it real. Write it raw and honest. Vulnerable. Because that’s what’s going to speak to others. Don’t write it the way I think it should be. Write it the way it is.

Read that last paragraph and speak it to yourself. If you write honestly, that’s what speaks to people most.

My story idea speaks to me deeply. I haven’t been traumatized. But I have felt suffering deeply, desperately wanting to take it away from the people I love. I don’t understand the hurt. I’ve learned some lessons. So, if I write this story in a way that speaks to me, if I write what I need to hear, chances are, that honesty will speak to someone else too. And that’s what matters.

 

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“We read to know we are not alone.”

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