Honesty

Ever hear that “honesty is key” and “the truth will set you free?” Well, yeah, those things are mostly true and accepted as morally just.

But let’s talk honesty in fiction. When I’m talking “honesty” I’m talking honesty from the writer to the reader, from the character voice to the reader. Honesty – that sheer honesty that we are able to write with, that bareness with which we can write without being stared at or called names, that transparency we are able to call upon within our writing that we can’t/won’t/refuse to use in our real lives.

In fiction, characters’ thoughts are free. They think what we think without worrying about what others will think about them. This is one reason why I am drawn more so to female protagonists than male protagonists; we share a brainwave pattern and thought process. They feel what I feel when faced with certain decisions.

My characters think something of what I think; they say what I wish I could say; they do what I wish I could – they are, in a nutshell, extensions of me, my consciousness, and my imagination.

Reading about girls (real and not) that share my fears and worries and anxieties make me feel less alone in the world. It reminds me that I am not alone, and I know that every other girl that reads finds that same solace – that they are not truly alone or weird or abnormal. There are girls all over the country and the globe that feel the way that I do, in every culture and from every language, and reading is a way to bridge that gap. (I’m sure boys can too. But boys are gross and have cooties. Eww!)