For a writer, it could be said that the mind is your most important tool. Therefore it is important to cultivate it, to challenge it. Read, watch the news, etc. This week seems to have been the week for that.
Daily, I let my imagination wander. But there have been some serious real-world issues that have truly been making my thoughts run rampant.
The inauguration was today. I don't like sharing my political opinion, so I'll just say that our new president has made many of the people around me worry.
This week, I saw a part of the documentary "Thirteen" by Ava Duvernay. I'd been meaning to see the whole thing, but you know how life can get you caught up. Anyway. I was captivated by the pictures and interviews I saw. African Americans have been through so much, however, having only been born in 1991, I'm far removed from any of the Civil Rights Movement and the fight that was fought to win us equal rights. Reading about it and watching movies and documentaries isn't the same as living through it.
However, I got to hear from someone that lived during that era, and my mind was blown.
One of the older gentlemen that I work with told my class that he was present during the Birmingham Children's March (which I had never heard of), and that he had been arrested along with several other young boys, held in an enclosure for seven days, and even has scars on his legs from dog bites. I was in awe of this man and his experiences. You would never know from meeting him that he had been through anything like that; yet here he was, calmly recounting these events to a group of ten year olds (and an equally awed 25 year old!) as if he was telling us about visits to his grandmother's.
This really sent my mind into overdrive.
Most of a writer's stories are flavored by experiences that they've had or stories they've read or heard. I've been busily thinking about the emotions and thoughts that people in that era must have experienced. The reasons that people from our history decided to put their lives on the line for what they believed. Why they were willing to stand up for something. These emotions and thoughts that people had as they marched and were beaten and arrested and more, what drove them?
It's important for a writer to make connections to their audience. Taking from these real-world experiences and filtering them through my writing ensures that people have some thread of connection, rather than just reading words on a page. The best stories are those that intertwine the human spirit with the words; these are the stories that you remember for years and go back to over and over again. Lord of the Rings showed me courage and adventure. The Cooper Kids series by Frank Peretti (the author who first inspired me to begin writing) showed me that trust in God didn't have to be shoehorned into a plot just because the writer was the Christian; rather, it was simply a truth that the characters believed. The challenge for myself is to capture feelings like these in my writing.
By the time that this year is over, I hope to be able to say that with confidence. To reach that goal, I will continue to read and write and experience the world around me and the history that I am a part of. You never know; maybe the words that I use will make people think the way that my colleagues words made me think.
"Be passionate and move forward with gusto every single hour of every single day until you reach your goal." - Ava DuVernay
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