Writing and Pain

I haven’t posted in a while. A lot has been going on in life and work. Writing has been more of a comfort than a passion. 

A lot of writers find their voice amidst pain. I can’t say that’s necessarily been the case for me. I started writing because I wanted to follow the story to see what sort of life my characters might find. My first stories were about my stuffed animals and my American Girl doll. They had adventures and fought off bullies, but never anything too tragic.  

Today, many of my stories have a much darker tone. Lately my characters have been experiencing the kind of pain that often breaks a person. 

I didn’t plan for my characters’ pain and my pain to coincide. The trajectory of the plot was already in place. 

And then my pain came too. 

I wonder, does the pain in my writing instigate pain in my life? Or am I just more aware of the pain of life because I can process the pain in a story? 

Or is there some enigmatic force causing the story of life to happen at the same time as the created story? 

Maybe all three? 

I suppose it doesn’t really matter. All that really matters is writing stories with characters who experience pain helps draw the real pain out and give it some meaning. While my original stories were about wolf puppies who needed to find their mom, my current stories are about people who are just trying to get from one day to the next and find some joy and meaning amidst their struggle to survive. 

They say art mirrors life. I always seem to find my life reflected in my creation. 

Which makes me wonder: did pain help me find my voice after all?