Going There

I could have labeled this post writing courageously. Or maybe fearless storytelling. But I like ‘going there' best.

This concept is something I’ve discovered during the course of my writing. My best books happen when I’m not afraid to ‘go there.’ This means slightly different things for each story, of course, but the main idea is the same.

And it applies across art forms. One reason I think Oprah is such a good interviewer is that she is never afraid to ‘go there.’ My favorite example was when she was interviewing Michael Jackson some years back. She asked him all the usual questions about his life, his music, his family. Then she hesitated. I have to ask you this, she said. His eyes grew wide. He already knew. You could almost hear the audience hold their breath. They knew too. And then she asked The Question: was your marriage a real marriage? In other words, did he have sex with his wife? The audience gasped.

What? Oprah said, you all wanted to know.

And we did. Oprah asks the questions we are all wondering about; the ones we don’t want to admit to, the ones we’re embarrassed about, the ones that are beneath us. But they are more than that: these are the questions that connect us all. And love and sex are certainly universal interests, among others, especially when the sex has a whiff of the forbidden or quirky.

Oprah’s sort of bravery is what I’m discovering about writing. When I am honest about my own fears, my own desires, my own sources of joy and sorrow, that rawness speaks to my readers, because they are discovering their own feelings about these subjects.

The book I’m working on now, without revealing too much, is a story about two women in one body. There was something in the back of my mind I was wondering about. I ignored it but it kept coming back. Finally I asked my husband, what would you be most curious about in this situation? He looked uncomfortable. Well, he replied, how would that, er, work?

I knew what he meant. I knew before I asked him. And I’m sure you do too. So I’m ‘going there.’ I didn’t really want to. I'm a very private person and I worry people will translate literary sex into my bedroom, for example. But for this story to satisfy my own and my future reader’s curiosity I have to delve into what I am curious about. Because others will be too. If I am brave the book will be more real. And hopefully give some unique insight into the human condition.

Because really, isn’t that why we write?