Solitude

You come into this world alone, and you will leave the same way. No matter how you want to think differently, the truth is we are alone inside our heads. 

If you think otherwise, you're only fooling yourself. 

And there are things no one else will ever know that lurk inside the folds of your grey matter. 

Things that horror reminds us of. 

Now, for writers, we get to tap into that stuff. The stuff that would otherwise label you as perhaps crazy, or an outcast, to those who don't want to admit to those bizarre things we think about at night as we stare a the ceiling and everything is set free to run wild inside. 

Everyone has these thoughts, whether they want to believe it or not. 

Stephen King touched on it in Lizzy's Story, where her husband went into a place in his head to write stories. She, of course, goes to that place in the book. But that's for you to read about. 

We all have these places inside our minds. Sometimes special, sometimes downright freaky. 

Some can properly control them and some submit to them and do crazy things to the world. 

Either way you look at it, the job of a writer is to harness these thoughts and present them in a coherent manner to the reader. 

We can be there for people. 

If done properly, and the writer isn't afraid to face these thoughts honestly, then they will ring true with the reader. 

Of course, it is easy to be afraid, to get caught up in what people might think of you. Heavens forbid they might think you're a crazed psychopath! 

No! 

The truth is, just as someone can write how it would feel to walk on Mars, even though they've clearly never been there, there are universal truths that we all share. 

Whether you have the cojones to say them is another thing. And the reader, who sits quietly away from the world and reads these words know. They know the truth if it's real. And if it's entertaining they come back. 

Something to think about. 

WCM