Fear of vulnerability keeps people from writing. For me, this often showed up as a fear of my family’s opinions. I write stories about my grandma and her family, but she’s not just my grandma. She was the sister, mother, the grandma, aunt, or cousin to a thousand other people who are still living and have opinions. What if they don’t like the way I portrayed her? Is she too perfect? too imperfect? And what about the other real-life characters? Or what if I got a farming reference wrong?
On some days, the fear of my family’s opinions kept me from writing at all, but I have recently come to the realization that my portrayal of Grandma reflects my relationship with her, and I never needed approval for that.
Grandma is gone now. For a while, I’m sure her stories will be retold at family gatherings or on her birthday, but eventually, the stories could be lost. I want to make them available for the generations to come.
What story or perspective are you uniquely equipped to share? What will be lost to this world if you never make time for it? If your writing could be a light to others, stop hiding it under a bushel, regardless of whatever your second-cousin might think.
For a collection of short stories based on my grandma’s childhood in the Dust Bowl, visit http://www.blurb.com/b/8958152-becoming-maxine.