Welcome back to Romance Writers Weekly!!! This week the subject is a deep one. Tracey Gee http://www.lovextra.com/ would like us to look at the darker side of ourselves within our writing. She’d like to know if we’ve put these bad experiences or relationships into our works for therapy purposes or just a way to close the door to our past.
This is a deep subject for me and probably one of the main reason’s it is taking me so long to get through Destiny’s Price. I write a good many heroines who have to rise above their past in some way, however, Destiny Connors was the heroine I wrote to help me learn to dig deep inside myself to overcome my own sexual abuse.
Now mind you, Destiny’s abuse was much harsher than my own and if I ever get this manuscript polished you’ll understand. Girls (and probably boys as well) who’ve been sexually abused as children take on a ‘warped’ sense of what sex and sexuality is as well as intimacy. So, as I wrote Destiny’s character I kept in mind how a young woman who’s spent several years being abused would react to situations. This is why the editing process of this story is so tedious.
When writing Destiny I go back in time. I look through healed adult eyes to see the girl I once was and how I would have reacted to some of the situations she finds herself in. On the other side of the coin, I also look to how the husband of 30 years has helped me overcome some of the learned behaviors and thought process. This helps me a great deal when writing my hero, Stephen Davis.
So, I guess you could say I use this as a means of therapy, but I also use it as a means of closing the door on that aspect of my life and to make my characters realistic.
Now mind you, Destiny’s abuse was much harsher than my own and if I ever get this manuscript polished you’ll understand. Girls (and probably boys as well) who’ve been sexually abused as children take on a ‘warped’ sense of what sex and sexuality is as well as intimacy. So, as I wrote Destiny’s character I kept in mind how a young woman who’s spent several years being abused would react to situations. This is why the editing process of this story is so tedious.
When writing Destiny I go back in time. I look through healed adult eyes to see the girl I once was and how I would have reacted to some of the situations she finds herself in. On the other side of the coin, I also look to how the husband of 30 years has helped me overcome some of the learned behaviors and thought process. This helps me a great deal when writing my hero, Stephen Davis.
So, I guess you could say I use this as a means of therapy, but I also use it as a means of closing the door on that aspect of my life and to make my characters realistic.
So there you have it, my cold dark truths. Let’s hop on over Brenda Margriet and see what she has in store for us today!!!
http://www.brendamargriet.com/blog
http://www.brendamargriet.com/blog