Writing Honestly

"Write hard and clear about what hurts." ~ Ernest Hemingway

Honesty. I would argue that this is the best piece of writing advice out there. If you're not emotionally invested in your characters, their lives, the place they live in and the plot, then there's no reason left to write.

And I'm not just preaching here, I'm getting personal. I used to think that creative writing was an escape from reality—an adventure, living life through the eyes of heroes I wished I could be, with idealized versions of the world—but I was wrong, and in the past year I realized that. Writing is living life in intense retrospect.

Well, how do you know when you've been truthful? When you're afraid to show someone your work because if feels like handing them your heart and praying they won't break it, you know you did it right.* What the world needs isn't more tales of high adventure with flawless heroes—it's honesty.

People crack, they cry, they suffer. Your characters should do the same when appropriate. "Write hard and clear about what hurts." We don't want to admit we aren't perfect, but it's the truth, and when you write it, it won't feel good. Recently I wrote a character's death so brutally honest that I mourned with the characters the rest of the day. But you know what? As much as all of it hurts, it'll feel that much better when your readers thank you.

Writing is a high calling. Don't waste it.

* I understand that there are those of you that have been through a traumatic event, and if that's you, don't write about it until you're ready. Writing can help you heal, but not until you've let time do its work.