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When someone you love is gone suddenly, with or without the chance to say goodbye, it takes some time to come to terms with the loss. I’ve tried every day since my last post to find words and failed. Over the last month I’ve had to deal with the loss of two men. Each was very special to me in his own way. One was the loving father I wished I’d had and the other lost only two days ago was the son I never had.
From the depths of despair comes a deeper understanding of how my characters feel, act, and react when they face the tragedy and sorrow I put them through as a writer. Early in my writing career I attended a conference where Lillian Darcy spoke about the value of life experience to a writer’s work and how her success came despite her youth at the time. Wishing I didn’t have quite so much first hand experience is futile.
The understanding of what it’s like to “walk a mile in my shoes” deepens a writer’s characters on the page. I know that as a reader and I hope my readers see it in “Torn”. I trust that Mary and Liam’s feelings on being torn from their homeland and their loved ones, mirrors in some small way my own heart, ripped open by sorrow and loss.
I only hope I can mirror their fortitude and resilience in going after what they want their lives to be in the future, finding happiness after sorrow.
Is it any wonder that writers speak about their books as their children? So much of your own self bleeds into those words on the page.
Zoe Younger 