Writing About What's Real

When I write, it's usually about reality with a little fantasy splashed in to make it more entertaining. I like writing about mermaids, angels, demons, and everything in between. That's a known fact about me that everyone who knows about what I write knows. I never thought that I could write a book about real life topics like Sarah Dessen or Emily Brontë so I stuck to what I knew I could right.

Now, looking back on it, I know I was just scared. Books such as Dreamland and Just Listen by Sarah Dessen are things I could never even dream about writing. The topics are so hard to write about because you don't want to offend people and give them the wrong impression.

For my English major, I had to take two semesters of a foreign language. I'd had my heart set of Italian or Russian just to give me a challenge and have some fun. Unfortunately for me, they didn't have Italian 1010 or Russian 1010 available during a spring semester. They did, however, have American Sign Language (ASL) so I decided to give it a try.

During my classes, I found myself enjoying it more and more, especially with how many hours I was in class plus a weekly lab and studying on my own or with friends. We had to be in the mindset of not being able to talk for long periods of time, but having to find ways to communicate even if we didn't know the sign for a word.

When I saw Switched At Birth a while later, I decided that was what I wanted to do. I wanted to write a book about a character who was deaf. Of course, that was easier said than done seeing as I've tried distinguishing between thoughts and signing in writing and let me tell you that it's nearly impossible to do unless you're bolding, italicizing, underlining, or whatever other fancy things you can do. So instead, I chose a different topic that's not so far from a deaf character.

Currently, my Writing In Progress is to a huge concrete road block like the one that blocks my shortcut home from campus thanks to flooding this past year. I know where I want to go and how I want to get there, but I'm not quite sure how to make the words flow.

I suggested a story idea to Bailey and she really liked the idea so I began writing it. It's been coming out great so far, but the tricky part is that it's not my usual Urban Fantasy. This is actually about real life and has no magic or fantasy in it what-so-ever. That means that I have to do even more research than I normally would. My plan is that on my next free day, I'll spend the day at the library to do research since I trust books more than I do the internet even with how often I'm online.

With this new idea, I keep wondering what happens if I offend someone? What happens if all the facts are wrong and I'm made to look like a fool? Then I realize that this story may never be published or even looked at by another person who isn't part of this blog, but it's something for me to have fun with. It's a new challenge. If it doesn't work out, that's a shame, but it's not the end of the world.

I know what my strengths are and that's good, but sometimes you have to try something new. You have to step out of your comfort zone and prove, even if it's just to yourself, that you can do it.

This week's author: Not even going to put it because it never changes.