I can’t show this to Mom!
Would you show your book to your mom or grandma?
Did I get you there? *winks*
I know how that feels. I’ve written scenes that I would hesitate to show my mother. You know what I mean. Those. Yeah.
Thing is, we put a lot of ourselves into our books. And for the villains, we need to look into our own dark sides. Then we can write them convincingly. Most people hide those dark sides. We use them.
But it’s not a lot of fun to imagine our close family getting to see those dark sides via our books. Letting them know we can imagine such horror. Or kink. Or simply letting them see how we make our characters suffer and our villains gloat. Which we do, there’s no doubt.
And at least I can hear them say, in my imagination:
How can you write this?
Yet, we do all those things to make a story work. To create a story that touches our readers. And we need to pull out those soul pieces to do so, to connect with their souls. The good ones and the bad ones.
Which means baring parts of our soul.
Which makes us vulnerable.
In plain sight.
Ugh.
This is the moment where safety programs jump in to protect us. And they have many devious ways of doing so. They may make us procrastinate. Start a new story, rather than finish and edit the old ones. Tell us we need an agent and publisher before facing that particular danger (knowing fully well it’ll take years!). Making us want to format our story to perfection. Waiting for the perfect cover…
This fear of baring our innermost self could be behind all those subtle doubts and resistances that hold us back.
Unless we choose not to.
Unless we release that fear.
That’s what I use EFT for. My clients love it. Try the tapping:
Even though it’s scary to think of my family or friends reading my books, because there’s so much of myself in them, I’m totally okay the way I am, and I now choose to let go of that fear.
Even though I know I’ll never be able to explain to family and friends how I come up with the bad stuff in my stories, I’m totally okay the way I am, and I now allow myself to relax and accept this as part of being a writer.
Even though I’m so scared of my mom finding out what I wrote – ugh, it’s so dark and personal, what will she think! – and that keeps me from publishing my story, I’m totally okay the way I am, and I now choose to let go of that fear and get the book out anyway!
Your Turn:
What kind of scene have you written that you won’t show your mom?
How does it feel when you imagine her reading it anyway?
What happened while you were tapping?
And finally – what are you creating right now?
Would love to hear from you!
Image Source: F. Moebius
PS: You’ll find my personal experiences with these beliefs in the comment section. Because I am tapping with these very sentences, I’m inviting you to join me on this journey, and share your experiences.
PPS: My newsletter contains a full tapping round to go with my blog posts, so it’ll be easier for you to get results. Sign up through the form on the upper right hand corner, and receive that tapping round plus occasional special offers. If you’re on a mobile and can’t see the sidebar, you can sign up through this link: Newsletter Sign-up.
