When Writing Becomes Very Personal...

Sometimes being a writer is a scary venture. Not because of the tremendous amount of work it entails (and, boy, does it ever entail work!). Not because of the risk of rejection (which it clearly has in more ways than one). No, probably the most frightening thing about it is the way you have to dig deep into your own life, emotions, joys, traumas and such to create characters that aren't cardboard. That's a pretty frightening venture at times, particularly when it means reliving deep emotional difficulties and traumas of the past.

Photo by this Blog's Author
(can be found on morguefile)

Looking back can often cause an overwhelming feeling of insignificance, not to mention putting us back emotionally into that time. Sometimes we need to look back, though, in order to see how far God has brought us from where we once were, so we can release the hurts of the past and move forward free of them.

I'm finding myself there again - a writing project I have in the works can't be done properly without it. So I'm facing things that were far from rosy, feeling sick to my stomach as I do it but knowing it must be done. This, too, shall pass, though probably not fast enough to suit me. It won't be easy, because of the nature of what I'm facing, but I'll get through it. Hopefully sooner rather than later, but time will tell. No matter how isolated these things make me feel at times, I know I'm never alone.

"...and, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matt. 28:20b)

And when time comes, and the Lord says I'm ready, the writing project I need to make this step for will come to fruition.

What about you? Do you find yourself having to face the past in order to move forward in freedom from that past? If you're a writer, how does it effect your writing? If you're not a writer, how does it effect other creative ventures in your life?