Rethinking Ema

So when I first started this blog, I wanted to have a way of connecting myself as an author to my future audience. In my mind, I was going to be writing and publishing many many books every year. My dream was that I would be sensational and lots of people would want to know me… hehehe… and so my blog became performative in some sense. When I read these posts, I find only snippets of myself and wonder who this person was that wrote these words. They sound like they could be my words but they also give me a sense of holding back. Some posts are quite raw – showing my insides and make me cringe ever so slightly. Being witness to your past pain is quite a jarring experience. Being witnessed to a version that you have evolved from makes you introspect a bit more… So I guess in all this, I have a question – what is true now? What remains true? What is the essence of Ema?

I think I still want to write. I continue to write. I have some great days of discipline and some not so great days. I am surer of the voice in which I write. I am humble in my pursuit of this craft. This is truly a gift that flows its own course — to be subject to its whims is quite the lesson I sometimes need — being too sure of oneself has some downsides. I have less doubt and this makes writing that much easier. There are still stories inside me that are bursting to be told. I will try my best to honor this call. This is my greatest dream and it to be a prolific writer will be my greatest achievement.

What does this mean for Ema? The name lives on, I guess. I will continue to write and Ema will continue to publish. What I hope to create is a world that feels authentic to me – the storyteller me – you know, which is a small part of the other parts that make me, me!

Promise me…

When you love that you will love with an open heart

That you will remember what is freely given is never in vain

That you will trust love’s wellspring from the core of your being

That you will realize that love doesn’t hurt as much as you fear 

And most of all, that you will allow love to complete itself in your existence and being.

Promise me…

That when you choose love that you will surrender

Because to live without love is the tragedy of any instance of life that you imagine.

About dimensions

It’s quite human — and somewhat convenient — to paint people simply.  It’s much easier to label someone as all good or another as all bad.  I am learning that people are far more than just one “thing.”

I am also conscious that this is the same thing for me… it is possible for me to exist in these seemingly contradictory spaces. I have had a hard time understanding for instance that being angry and expressing my anger does not make me an inherently evil person.  I have a lot of guilt when I express anger — and I don’t know where I got this false belief that being angry equals being a mean person.  Especially when I know that anger is a healthy emotion and that it is basically a way of signaling that I feel an injustice has been done or that I object to how a story is unfolding.

But I think what I have learnt that is truly humbling is that because I was previously opposed to letting myself comfortably occupy these contradictory spaces without losing my identity, I was unable to lend this grace to others.  And it is really sad.  I think I used to see the world as black and white — and in some ways, I still do (but hopefully less so). Living that kind of life can be quite difficult…

I suppose with age I am softening and learning to live in the grey areas and getting more comfortable with not having this purist view of life… It is both refreshing and terrifying… but it fills me with great compassion.

Fringe benefit – this realization of dimensions makes it easier to really enjoy the Meredith Brooks “Bitch” song as popularized by Alanis Morrisette:

I’m a bitch, I’m a lover
I’m a child, I’m a mother
I’m a sinner, I’m a saint
I do not feel ashamed
I’m your hell, I’m your dream
I’m nothing in between
You know you wouldn’t want it any other way
So take me as I am…

Realizations

While on my little hiatus, I have been doing some reckoning.  Some of it has been good and some of it has been somewhat shocking.

So, one of the shocking realizations I have had is that I have to think and write and create beyond my own limited experiences.  I know it sounds obvious but there’s nothing like an aha! moment to convince you of what you think you knew.  I was reading an article on how to create heroines in romance novels that the modern woman can relate to.  The article was quite good and it gave some awesome pointers.

But as I read the end of the article, I realized that my readers have all sorts of experiences.  And while my own life serves as great inspiration for stories, it simply cannot be the only source of inspiration for the kinds of stories I want to tell.  You should have seen how big my eyes got as it slowly dawned on me that there is nothing new I would be telling my future audiences and the magic sauce would have to be in my characters.

Oh man – stress!!!

I have this bad habit of writing about the same kind of woman over and over and over again.  It happens mainly because I like to write by the seat of my pants… and it is great when I am doing it but when I am re-reading my writing, it sounds like I have the same woman running around in my stories.

And then I realized another thing.  There is only one remedy to the one woman wonder problem – I have to plan my writing better.  I have to get into the characters before I start writing the story and this is a more intense exercise than I thought.

My final epiphany (with a tiny ‘e’) was that it is time for me to honor the mechanics of writing and not just the inspiration and the art.

A bit tough, no?