The Scene I Didn’t Know Was About Me

    Sometimes as writers, we think we’re pulling a scene out of thin air, when in all actuality we are tapping into memories. Some of which we would like buried under lock and key in the same place as Atlantis. It’s never just my imagination, just characters I let live rent free in my head, or just a plot that has the readers begging for more. Every now and then, the words on the page feel a little too familiar. Like we didn’t write them so much as uncovering something we’d been carrying all along.

That happened to me recently with my works in progress Cuts and Cufflinks, Through Diamond Eyes, and a few times in Crossroads. But let's face facts… there is at least one or more scenes in each of my stories that ripped me to bits and forced me to confront hard truths. But this time I get to control the narrative even if the situation still has to happen.

I wrote a scene that I swore was about my character. Her fear, her defiance, her sharp tongue masking a breaking heart. The lie that it was her strength that got her through when the cards had been stacked against her from the get go. But when I stepped back, I realized it was my eyes on that page staring back at me. My own storm, my own memories, my own scars had bled onto the page. Things I have kept, under lock and key, slipped through my fingers and disguised themselves as fiction.

And while completely unintentional and caught off guard, I now stand with a choice. Recognize and rewrite the scene or leave it alone. Because things no one really discusses about writing is its therapy. Sometimes our subconscious is braver than we are. It will tell the truths we don’t dare say out loud. And once you see it, you can’t unsee it. But would you want to?

That scene reminded me that writing isn’t just storytelling. It’s survival. It’s the way we process what we’ve endured and prove to ourselves we’re still standing. Characters that thought they were alone in that moment. Turns out, they had me all along, and that’s more powerful. 

Maybe that’s why readers connect so deeply with the things we write. Because even when we don’t realize it, pieces of us bleed through the ink. The scene I didn’t know was about me? It still hits hard but it doesn’t scare me anymore. Why? Because this time, I didn’t have to lie about it. There is no longer fear attached to the words that were said or the actions that were done. Let’s face it, my FMCs hold their own, as I held mine. 

Taking power back has many different faces. Which one of your characters showed yours?

Be Brave, Be Bold, But Always Stay Humble