Just wondering about this question:

Must a writer ‘know’ pain or anguish to effectively convey it in plot development or a character’s inner world?

• If the writer isn’t aware of such issues in their own lives, are these issues actually there…lingering in the background music of the subconscious?

• Otherwise, how could a writer ‘know’ how to relay the inner layers and show the subliminal gestures, nuances, and outcomes?

It’s one thing to superficially show an issue in a plot…but it’s another thing to show the intricate inner layers of sticky webs that the issue produces in the psyche of the characters, which drive subplots.

Where did this question about a writer’s innate sense to intricately portray emotions and issues come from?

Ah…I’m just nibbling on grapes and asking myself that very question…

• I’m working on a book, and I inadvertently steered the plot to drive itself into foggy conditions and difficult terrain.

• The terrain: Generational trauma and generational healing.

• And I’m wondering…how ‘inadvertent’ is that?

Does a writer do anything ‘inadvertently’?

• Or did they just pick up the tune of the background music (the subconscious) and dance to it…a tune that must have briefly made itself heard…?

In my case, I didn’t just dance to a tune I picked up in my head… I ran with it.

I began to explore the very meaning of generational trauma and generational healing as a ‘thing,’ and that opened up a Pandora’s box for me.

Well, not a box, more like a trunk.

Yes… I opened my own Pandora’s box, which I call Sosanni’s trunk.

But unlike the myth, my trunk was full of thoughts and ideas that were locked away.

Locked away until I started looking into generational trauma and then discovered my trunk.

Then, like Pandora and her box, I opened my trunk…and out they came.

What are ‘they‘ that escaped the trunk?

Unlike what Pandora set loose from the box and allowed to fly out and away into society, I let loose a heap that has settled into a sizable pile of thoughts, realizations, questions, and musings—waiting to be dealt with, looked at, processed…my new tsundoku, of sorts.