Hey! It’s the monthly blog hop/ known as the Insecure Writers Support Group founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh. You’re invited to join if you're a writer, insecure, or just supportive of writers. It happens the first Wednesday of each month, and it would be sweet of you to visit at least a dozen or so new blogs and leave a comment. Your words are appreciated. Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG. Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!
The awesome co-hosts for the October 6 posting of the IWSG are Jemima Pitt, J Lenni Dorner, Cathrina Constantine, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, and Mary Aalgaard!
Years ago...
When I finished my first manuscript I was ecstatic..
I had NYTimes best selling author stars in my eyes...
And I sent it off to an editor feeling positive.
But when the edited manuscript came back...
The stars turned to tears...
My manuscript had been edited to shreds...
Besides numerous typical first-time writer errors...
She said:
“Your religious and political views don’t belong in a story.”
I wasn’t even aware I had done that, how'd they sneak in?
But guess what? I learned.
Now, if I put in opinions, they’re my character’s opinions, not mine...
And I’m judicious...
Asking myself if a character’s opinion is crucial for the plot?
But other than that..
I have a liberal criterion...
About language, scenes, or controversial characters.
If they are needed for the story they stay...
If not >>delete, delete, delete<<
Now mind you...
I’ve written some “eh hem” scenes that were necessary...
But after I wrote them...
I felt like I needed a shower...
Or prayers...
Or...
A moment alone.
But isn’t that what’s delicious about writing?
We can cross controversial lines—within reason, of course...
Without getting shamed, ostracized, or arrested.
It’s why I have two pseudonyms. **wink**
Well, I got to thinking about authors whose books...
For several reasons have been banned.
So, I Googled...
And up popped Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer.
Immediately, I got a flashback...
Of me as a kid living on Long Island...
During the summers...
When my mom would go Wednesdays to her coffee klatch...
And knowing she’d be gone for two hours...
I’d sneak into my parent’s bedroom...
Go straight to my mom's top dresser drawer...
And find hidden under her undies...
The book she’d currently be reading...
And because I knew those books were forbidden for me to read...
They seemed all the more tantalizing.
BesidesTropic of Cancer, I found Lolita, one by James Baldwin, and a few others that are hazy in my memories.
Hmm?
Thinking back
I can say my mom had a very multi-personality library.
On the bookshelves in the living room were the classics: Chaucer, Dickens, Homer, Poe, Dante, Shakespeare, Tolstoy and more.
On the coffee table were the bestsellers of the time: Earl Stanley Gardner, Leon Uris, Hemmingway, James Mitchener, and other bestsellers.
But in the bedroom...
Was her Ooh, la, la stash. Oh, yah, yah!
So?
Where do you draw the line in your writing?
Ever cross it?
Ever read a banned book?
Do tell.
Always,
Em-Musing
