"If you have a skeleton in your closet, take it out and dance with it." ~Carolyn MacKenzie
Maybe I love this quote because it occupies the space next to a wickedly funny black-pencil sketch of a skull in my writer's inspiration book. Most likely, I remember it because it speaks the truth.
In a recent workshop, the publicist asked authors to compile a list of everything they'd written--short stories, articles, epic novels and determine a common thread connecting them all. Challenging? Definitely. But not impossible.
After a cliche-bloated list of themes and topics resonating through my writing over the past eight years, I made a quasi-psychological discovery about my work. Everything I'd written revolved around reconnection. To self, to spirit, to others. Not only does that make me want to peek in the closet to see what kind of baggage the skeleton is holding onto, but it makes my fascination with time and its passage more understandable.
Honesty in our writing emerges from the charged experiences of our past. Fears, desires and secrets each have their own energy field. Suppressed, but never forgotten, these skeletons comprise part of the fabric of our stories. The natural, unfiltered flow of a writer's true voice.
What is the universal message in your writing?
