Hey there to all my readers and fellow Authors out there. It’s been a hell of a week and I am so glad it’s over. Have you ever felt the need to write because you want to escape the reality of your own life? Some people’s lives are so horrific that they can’t even talk about it and others want to talk about it but nobody cares to listen. Sometimes writing helps to escape from the problems we have every day, the drama in our relationships, family issues, on the job stress and just watching the world crumble around us as we watch the news every night while eating dinner. All these things can build up to the point of feeling like the walls are caving in around you. I personally know how this feels and writing helps me to escape the pressures of everyday life. But why do we need to escape it, instead of just dealing with it head on?

Could it be that we are just avoiding the issues surrounding us? Or are we just running away so we don’t ever have to deal with them? The types of problems that I mentioned are rather distressing but they can improve our writing abilities. What would we write about if everything was going well in our lives? What kind of music would Kurt Cobain have made if his life wasn’t so dark, if he wasn’t so depressed? His music would not have been able to reach so many young people the way it did. Would Jim Morrison, or The Beatles have been able to write such iconic music if it weren’t for the events that were happening in the world during the 60’s and the drugs that they consumed to drown it out?

Would Stephen King have been able to create such frightening stories like It, The Shining or Carrie if he wasn’t inspired by the twisted side of life, the things we fear to talk about? The things that make us afraid of the dark? My stories all seem to have one thing in common. Someone always gets hurt. How could I write about someone getting hurt if I have never been hurt myself? Author Terry McMillan writes about finding love and loss of love and secrets within families threatening to tear them apart. Her life may have endured something to fuel the many characters that pull her readers in and make them want to read more.

How many of us have said at least once in our lives that we hate our lives and wish we could trade places with someone else? Imagine how boring life would be if there were no conflict. Would we try to achieve our goals if there were no obstacles standing in our way? Would we learn from the experience? Or just take everything for granted because it was so easily obtained? Life is such a beautiful word and I enjoy living. But life is never easy and will always have its challenges. But perhaps we don’t create stories to escape our lives at all. Maybe we write because we want to see what else is out there. Beyond what’s standing right in front of us. Authors have such curious minds. I never take anything for face value. I am always asking, why? I like to explore and some people don’t have the luxury to take trips to far way lands and meet new and interesting people. Some of us never got farther than their own backyard. Through writing, we can create any kind of world we want and any kind of person. We can be God in our own story and manipulate it any way we want. Perhaps God creates conflicts in our lives as well to teach us what he wants us to know.

But unfortunately, the story of our lives must at some point come to an end but the stories we create can live on forever. Until next time…