Written by Melissa Velasco, Accomplished Indie Writer
Melissa Velasco is an Indie author with a quick wit, edgy writing style, and bold willingness to take a flying leap into the unknown. She is the author of the Hollywood High Chronicles book series, a metaphysical thriller deep dive into the trials of a pack of metaphysically charged teen misfits growing up in gritty 1990's Hollywood.
Now that you tackled step one, writing without hesitation, from my February “A ‘How To’ Guide for the Prospective Writer” article, you likely tumbled headfirst into a vat of quicksand. “Gee whiz! Where did that come from?” Emotions churn as you dive deeper. Yeah, I know. Been there and felt that. I warned you that your writing journey would be fraught with peril. I know that ‘I told you so’s’ are crass, but this one comes with a compassionate smile. This writing stuff is hard for a lot of reasons. Today’s exploration is one of the toughest challenges we face as writers.
Shadow work: the process of exploring the repressed and avoided parts of yourself.
Your emotional purge is your next adversary on your writing journey. If you want to create three-dimensionally believable storylines and characters, you must infuse them with your dark experiences and understanding. I’m talking about the hidden stuff that you protect and avoid, emotions, fears, humiliation, regret, and ultimate happiness that made you quake.
You, the writer, don’t get to hide behind the fictional tale you’re crafting. Anonymity while writing fictional subject matter is a fallacy. You’re about to be fully exposed. This is an experience that all artists share. Painters, writers, choreographers, dancers, actors, you name it. Artists reveal the human condition.
To be clear, that fear that stopped you cold as you wrote a chapter that hit a little too close to home was real. You must face it. Let’s disarm the inevitable safeguard you may defensively hide behind.
“I’ll give away a little of myself, but not all.”
No, you won’t. You aren’t writing a book that’s ‘kinda good!’ You’re writing the real deal, gritty, deep diving, with heart. Here’s what my editor and mentor, Kyle Fager, said that made me hit the gas in my creativity go-kart:
“Rule number one. People want nice, calm lives in reality. In their literary escape, though, they want drama. Don’t play it safe.”
If you play it safe, you shortchange your story, yourself, and your reader. Give this everything you’ve got, literally. If you plan to get through this book-writing journey by holding back and only giving away a little of yourself, then you’ve resigned your finished product to mediocrity.
Let’s unpack the gritty, dirty, blunt reality.
Everything you write will pull from your understanding of the world. Whether you gained that understanding through excruciating heartbreak, elation, hilarity, mishap, love, or compassionately helping a friend, you can bet your fluffy tail that your experience is fuel for your artistic fire. As you write, little inklings from your life will drift into your work. As you rewrite, edit, and review, you’ll pulse even more of your experience onto the written page. You must infuse ‘real deal’ experience into your work.
Writing is a painful journey.
“Melissa, do you actually understand?”
I do. I’ve published five books to date from my book series, The Hollywood High Chronicles, but I’ve written all sixteen books that complete the series. Along my writing journey, I’ve sobbed until I lost my lunch. I’ve cried so hard while I wrote chapters that I had to call one of my oldest and dearest ‘soul friends.’ He spent months talking me through the personal shadow work I uncovered. The good news is that I’ve also laughed until I hurt while I wrote. When I began my writing exploration, I thought I was a stable human. (Hold on a second while I bellow at my kids to quit laughing, Stable, right!) What I discovered along my path was that I have a treasure trove of experiences to draw from, but they’re guarded by demons built of repressed shadow work doom. I’ve battled those demons. I lost a few of those battles, but with support, I’m ultimately winning the war. The idea that authoring is an introverted, solitary mission is a fallacy! You need a support team.
Writing is terrifying, and I mean that sincerely.
People get bunched up around the functionality of writing, grammar, typesetting, etc. Your technical shortcomings aren’t the daunting part. An editor fixes those issues. Your subconscious fear of your darkness is the hurdle that an editor can’t resolve for you. Standing eye-to-eye with your own reflection and facing your flaws is what truly tests an author. I’m not talking about your procrastination or habit of saying “like” too often in conversation. I’m talking about the cringy stuff you’ve avoided for years, the lying, loose cannon berating, cheating, giving in, and giving up. That’s where your storytelling meat lives.
Once you traverse those demons, another layer of bigger and badder demons awaits, and be warned that they will initially break you, but for the better. Those are the experiences you can’t even bring yourself to think about. The time you broke your mother’s heart. The completely helpless experience where there was no compassion in sight. The horrific, life-changing nightmare that took out your knees with such heart-wrenching regret, loss, and loneliness that you thought you’d die of suffocation before your lungs learned to work again. Some of those demons will be monstrous, housing such self-loathing that you’re truly destroyed by whatever you did to create it. You might not know at first, pondering what those demons are, but you’ll uncover them. While horrific, you need to process through this shadow work for the sake of your book, and yourself.
If you’re puzzled by this personal demon concept because you’ve yet to face emotional turmoil on your author journey, then dig deeper, because your book has yet to reach its pinnacle!
The question becomes, can you handle what lives in you? If the answer holds even an inkling of curiosity or willingness to try, then you need to keep going. If your book is written, go back and analyze it with a freshly calculating eye, and ask:
Did your reader gasp?
Are their hands sweaty as they experience the conflict?
Can they relate?
Is your reader unable to put your book down when the conflict is in full rage?
Does your story take them to a place of awakening?
That is your job, your duty, your purpose as a writer. You must be brave enough to go there within yourself so that you can lead your reader there. You’re the guide. You better know the deadly cave system of your tale by heart, in the dark, with certainty, because your reader might need to squeeze your hand tight as they follow you through your book. If you’ve done the work, they’ll trust you to guide them through until the end.
The true sacrifice of a writer, as I’ve come to understand it.
You’ll give all that you are, opening yourself to scrutiny and flippant dismissal while you’re raw and vulnerable, for this authoring gig. The sacrifice is worth it because there are people out there who will read your story and come to terms with something in themselves. Or they’ll find friends in the pages of your book. They may feel understood. Perhaps you’ll give them respite from their dull lives. You might offer insight that they didn’t even know they needed. We don’t write for ourselves. Instead, we lay our souls bare and sacrifice our darkest secrets for our art.
Welcome to the world of an artist. You’re in good company. The best people I know are artists because they truly live.
Stay tuned for the next step of the journey: Building the setting of your story. Visit here.
Melissa Velasco, Accomplished Indie Writer
With a quick wit, often edgy mouth, and loud laugh, Melissa exuberantly embraces life. Melissa Velasco is a true explorer of the arts. With a well-rounded background as a choreographer, professor, dance teacher, stage manager, and author, she thrives in creation. At her core, she believes that the arts save lives and provide a route for passion and connection. With five books currently published from her Hollywood High Chronicles metaphysical thriller books series, Melissa Velasco is an accomplished Indie writer.
