Writing Reveals Itself

I’m going to switch gears for a moment and talk about writing itself. Maybe writing is like doing a science experiment. (Maybe it isn’t–I don’t know much about science.) You have a vision of something that inspires you or that you think matters, and you believe that it might matter to other people too. If you write for a living, maybe you have to know just what you are doing. But if you write from your heart, you might have an intuiton about where you are going. If you had it all figured out in advance, i don’t think it would be very fresh.

Of course I am talking about myself, but maybe you too. I wrote my first book to help people deal with anxiety, because I had been there and I wanted to pass on what I had learned. I wanted to save others from suffering as I once did. But this new book is different. When the Berlin Wall came down, puzzling information i never knew about my family, especially my mother, entered  into my life. I could have ignored it, but almost from the start I knew I was being given missing links, not just to my mother’s story, but to the things that had influenced who I am and the challenges and opportunities of my life–including the opportunity to transform and release old pain that didn’t need to get passed on to the world anymore.

The tale of what I learned and experienced over the next twenty years turned into a mystery story, an adventure story, a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, and a healing journey that I would love to share.

Just thought I’d let you know. I didn’t know the exact theme of my book until it revealed itself in the writing. Now my challenge is to be able to say what that theme is in a sentence. I’m struggling to find the few words to point to the many. Will keep you posted.

If you have had a similar challenge or have some words of wisdom, let me know.