It’s almost been a year since I started writing a blog at least once a week. Doesn’t seem like time should’ve flown by that fast. When I was little, a month would drag by. Summers seemed to last forever, and the time between Labor Day and Christmas was the longest stretch of time ever. Now, I can’t breathe without three months passing me by faster than I can snap my fingers.

I’ve learned a lot from the blogs this past year. It’s funny how we can all talk about one subject and have a different outcome that makes sense. I’ve also learned that life is meant to be lived to have fun, enjoy yourself and those around you. And not to mention, life is lived so that you can live it a different way through your writing.

Writing, for me, is an exercise in clearing my conscience. Redoing things I wished I’d done different, living life vicariously through my main characters. It’s one of the best things about writing a story. You are someone different when looking through a different POV. I give myself up to the feelings of first love, betrayal of someone closest to you, deceit, lying, cheating, begging, and relying on no one but myself. All these emotions claw their way to the surface when on the page. But also, writing teaches you a lot about yourself. Things you keep firmly locked away seem to bubble up until you’re unable to lock it away anymore.

Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. The best way to get it over with is to just get it out.

For the writing, the life of the character is everlasting until that last page when you have to say goodbye and move on. It’s not painful to say goodbye to a good story when you know you’ve given them the right ending. But what happens if life gets in the way of that happily ever after ending and the story must go on through a new POV?  It’s hard to let go then because you know somewhere in the story it went wrong. Your emotions swung the story onto the path less taken and no matter how hard you try; you can’t find your way back. That’s life breathing through your writing. My writing holds more emotion when I write this way. It’s painful for me, but I like the end result. This makes me think about life more often and how short it really is. How sometimes the most important things to us get swept aside in our quest to have bigger and better things. Makes me think about what we have to sacrifice to have what we think we want instead of just what we need. When I write, life is simpler. It’s as easy as that.

I have a theme song for writing. I’ve loved this song for so long that even when I haven’t listened to it for a while, I can still sing it without missing a beat. Love unrequited except for a single night. Lovers who can’t find a way to be together and each second they can spend together draws them further apart. The song is so heartbreaking to listen to but it’s hypnotic. I use this song when I need help remembering what’s worth sacrificing in life, in writing. I think about what it would be like to look at someone from across the room and pretend I didn’t know them. To walk past them and remember the way his fingers felt on my naked skin, the way he looked in the moonlight and the stars shining in his eyes and the way it felt when he kissed me goodbye. It’s that type of emotion that traps a reader and makes them turn the page and I needed to be reminded of that.

What sort of life do you put into your writing? Readers, do you find yourself reading a certain type of book based on what kind of story is being told? If you don’t fancy those questions, I’m curious about music. What kind of theme song would you give your life?