Write what you know

“Two am, and I'm still awake, writing a song
If I get it all down on paper, it's no longer
Inside of me, threatening the life it belongs to
And I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd
'Cause these words are my diary, screaming out loud
And I know that you'll use them, however you want to”

~ from the song Breathe, by Anna Nalick

Writing a book is like baring your soul.

Or at least, that’s how I feel. I can’t speak for other authors.

They say “write what you know.”

A Songbird’s Tale is so many parts of me. The story is a story that’s been inside my soul for years, and finally letting it out, and getting it on paper is equally liberating and nerve-racking. I’m writing this book because I can picture myself wanting to undertake this adventure, I can picture myself having no idea of what I’m getting into, and the hardships are all hardships I would expect to face along the way. In some ways, the characters and the story all contain pieces of my own hopes, dreams, aspirations, struggles, and doubts. I can’t help but write what I know.

It’s a weird paradox, because, the reader isn’t thinking at all about you, the author, when they’re reading your book. The reader should be wrapped up in the story. I don’t think I’ve ever read a fantasy or sci-fi novel where I was like “Man, what kind of person was the author to write such a book?” Even reading/watching something as graphic as Game of Thrones, I’m more interested in what’s going to happen next than thinking about why and where George R. R. Martin came up with such content. If the author has done a good job, you should be 100% absorbed in the characters and their plight.

But from the other side of the page, it’s terrifying. It’s raw. I literally feel like I’m revealing parts of my innermost self to a sea of complete strangers. Maybe that makes me a bad author? Maybe I’m just overthinking it? Maybe I’m just weird?

For what it’s worth, I understand that not everyone will like my book, and I am 100% OK with that. I don’t like every person I meet and I don’t expect every person I meet to like me. It’s the same with art, or books, or music. We all have different tastes and preferences and thoughts and ideas and that's what makes the world such a cool place.

But it doesn’t change the fact that I get a little nervous at the thought of people reading something that I’ve spent such a long time working on and something that I’ve poured so much of my heart and soul into.

Nevertheless. As Jack Canfield once said, “Everything you want is on the other side of fear.”

So here we are.

There’s no turning back now.