I Write… To Who… & Why

Saleema sent out the challenge of posting what I write, why, and who to.

I thought I knew who I wrote for and why. I mean, I know what I write. I write off-trope urban fantasy, epic fantasy, and science fiction books that don’t have romance because all of my romance bones are broken.

But I think I missed my why for decades.

I was working on my ideal client profile for my content strategy business I’m trying to launch, and made an epiphany there. My ideal client isn’t a woman owning her own contracting business. My ideal client is a man owning his service industry business who’s ideal client is a wife who’s the project manager, administrator, and executor of her family.

So, that got me to thinking. If I go that wrong because I wasn’t looking deeply enough, then what do I write, why, and who do I write for?

What I Write

This one is fairly easy or so I thought.

I write urban fantasy, epic fantasy, and science fiction. I like to write anything where I can escape to different worlds or different versions of this one.

Why I Write

I write for a few reasons.

I want to shape the world I live in, but do it as an invisible person.

That sounds really weird, but I grew up fighting hard to be invisible because if I was seen, I was in trouble. The entire world was ending because I was breathing wrong, or saying something wrong. My fucking face gets me into so much trouble. I can’t tell you how many times my fucking eyebrows have set someone off. My eyebrows! I can’t use my fucking face without triggering people.

But I grow people. I shape them. I build them. I hone them. That’s just who I am. I can’t help that.

Which is probably why I piss some people off when I breathe. I’m breathing them into growth, which is uncomfortable.

Making people uncomfortable is still not super comfy for me. I’m working on it as I get closer and closer to my next amazing era of don’t-give-a-fuck-for-your-snowflake-feelings. I’m really looking forward to that. But I started writing, publishing, and winning awards for this over twenty years ago. I was a much, much different woman back then.

Speaking made me uncomfortable.

Having someone look at me made me uncomfortable.

I didn’t have a favorite color until I was twenty-eight. I fought hard to blend in.

So, writing was my way of shaping the world as an invisible person.

I’m more comfortable being in my own skin now. I can weather a frown. I can stand and not melt when a bully is railing at me for having the audacity of making a decision - which is quite literally what he’s paying me to do.

But I’m still more comfortable speaking through my characters than I am speaking to people directly. I don’t know that will ever fully change.

I want to escape my reality.

It started as a kid. I wanted to be somewhere I had value.

It continues to this day. All the things I know how to do aren’t things people around me want. I bring no value those around me value.

So, I escape to places where I am valued. Not worshipped. That gets a little weird. But valued.

In odd ways. In obvious ways. In selfish ways. In vane ways.

Value is value.

But the greatest value I crave is being able to simply exist and not be discredited, discounted, shunned, ignored. Being allowed to breathe, to exist, to be is the greatest value I look for when I’m building my worlds.

Who I Write For

I write for others like me who are killing it in the world around them and still feel like they don’t have value that matters.

To the people who are being shunned for speaking out or not following the edicts.

To the people who were abused as kids and into adulthood and who feel they don’t have a voice.

Or to the people who use their voice and others shout louder to silence them. And they allow it because it’s easier to be quiet than to shout louder.

I write to the invisible people.

In my worlds, we have a voice.

In my worlds, we make decisions that… sometimes just don’t make sense.

In my worlds, we matter.

In my worlds, we can exist.