A friend once told me that if everyone liked you, you’re either selling out everyone or you’re selling out yourself. It was a hard proverb for me to accept because I, like every other human, not only wants to be liked, but even loved by the people in my world. One only has to look as far as the Covid shutdown and the social/political divide in the United States to understand how important connection and acceptance are to us. So to assure we have enough of both, we are mindful of the things we do and say. We try not to offend and to stay within the set rules of engagement as best we can in order not to suffer the social death sentences of isolation, cancellation, and rejection. Thiis is especially true for us writers who put not only ourselves, but the fruits of our creative selves out there whenever we share or publish. Our words, fair or not, are seen as who we are and are judged accordingly.
When I created the main characters and laid out the basic premise for “The Fairy Catcher” (my in-progress novel), it didn’t take long to discover that the story pushed certain social boundaries that make people uncomfortable. I’ve always prided myself as someone who created real characters who deal with real life things, but humans tend to sometimes shy away from and even reject things that have been categorized as social taboo. Some of the friends who I shared my story idea with were taken back by the material and began to question why I would create something so cringe worthy. A few even began to question my character and ethics, believing that my writing about such things was some kind of promotion or statement of my personal beliefs. (I guess they forgot that I write fiction.)
The lesson I’m learning from writing “The Fairy Catcher” is that it takes a degree of courage to create any form of art. People will judge, criticize, and misunderstand. People will even ostricize in some extreme responses. But if we allow fear to determine what artists write of paint or say, all forms of human self expression will be in danger of being snuffed out. Courage, my friends. Courage.
Dream Scribbles 