Do You Dare?

From My Blog

I need to clarify that by scandalous I mean that which involves things within our own selves. This article is about tapping into the reality and authenticity of a writer's soul.


Scandalous Writing
By La Belle Rouge


If you want to be not just a good writer but a writer who produces works loyal readers will read again and again and new readers will be attracted to, you have to learn to let the scandal out of your soul! Yes I said the “Scandal”. Not the pretty thoughts, not the fluff that will bring a brief smile and then soon be forgotten. The absolute gut spilling scandal is what will make your writing great and make you a real person to your readers.

Who wants to read the works of a plastic manikin? Readers of intelligence and emotional depth want to read something from someone as real as they are. Someone who is not afraid to open the treasure chest of their life and let the world see the contents. The treasure chest of a life will contain precious jewels but it will also contain rotting rags that we’ve hidden away from the light. Do we dare expose the good, the bad and the ugly? Your inner critic will be screaming "You can't write that, it's scandalous." If you are becoming a real writer you will know that the thing too scandalous to say is often just what needs to be said.

Readers want to know you “feel” that you hurt and bleed and laugh and love, just like they have. I’m not so sure the barrage of popular self help books from “I got it all together” gurus will stand the test of time the way masterful work of men and women who knew they didn’t have it all together and they wrote honestly about their struggle has stood the test. Their triumphs and their failures poured out on the page is what makes them human, makes them great writers. We still read them, even years after their deaths, because we feel we know them, we relate to them in our mutual humanity.

If you want to be a memorable person with whom a reader feels a kinship and tie, if you want your works to be read after you are gone, then don’t be afraid to let the scandal out. Don’t be afraid to reveal the things that are hidden or say the things people want to say but are afraid to.

If it’s in you then you can write it, you can find the way to express it. The unique way that belongs only to you. The uniqueness is what makes you a person, a person others want to know and to relate to when they read your work. If you let someone rob you of your individuality then you have given away the most precious gift God gave to you.

Never let anyone tell you what you should or shouldn’t write or how you should write it. Only you possess the treasure chest and the key to unlock it. There is no right or wrong way to write, there is only the real or the plastic. There is only the fluff or the reality and the choice is yours, which one you intend to write. The reality is inside you and it will make you great if you aren’t afraid to let it out. Scandalous writing? Why not?


8/3/2009 La Belle Rouge