People are so uncomfortable these days about anything subject to opinion. With just me stating that people are opinionated these days, will most likely result in emails asking me to define what my true intentions were in even saying so. That’s how sensitive people are.
These days, we are afraid to write what’s in our heart, for fear of what others will think or how they will judge. We are afraid not to read what the world is yelling at us to read. We are afraid of getting something wrong.
So much noise.
A lot of people are likewise curling up into their hidey-holes to avoid the racket. A lot of writers are not writing. Some wrote me just last week, unsubscribing from FFW because they are fearful of writing anymore.
In a time when the world is screaming and nobody is listening, be true to yourself for sanity’s sake. Write the story on your heart. Write for the publications that call to you. Read the pieces that will add quality to your life. Listening to too many opinions will dismantle you.
Those who disagree with me, my stories, my website, or anything I attempt are just not my people unless what I deem their suggestion to hold credence. But that ultimate decision is mine, with or without discussion. In my world, which I enjoy on the quiet, gentler side these days, the noisier the criticism, the less heard.
You need a safe place where you can be you. The safe ground I’ve defined is to be the best of who I can be, whatever I define that to be, and to cut back on my judgment of others. I read what offers enjoyment for me, sometimes based upon suggestions, but not always. And I write my stories, the stories of my choice, to make me and my reader friends happy.
Find your safe place and own it. Best to be a calm in the midst of the storm. There’s less damage that way to all parties concerned.
BIO: C. Hope Clark, author of award-winning mysteries, www.chopeclark.com, and founder of FundsforWriters.com
Love this post. Agree, the world has become a place were we are far too often afraid to verbalize even the least provocative of our thoughts and that’s sad. Our country grew out of a desire for freedom of speech, thought and choices. Recently my own daughter called me a communist because I’d been vaccinated for Covid – suggesting I’d drunk the Koolaid. I didn’t verbally defend myself at first, but ended up writing to her to explain the world I was born into where Polio was the biggest killer and crippler of children and yet between my birth and hers Polio had been conquered through vaccination. I don’t know how she will react to my letter but I felt I had to try to help her see where my choice came from. As for my books, I did languish for awhile and wanted to blame Covid, but I don’t really know why. I finally returned to writing and just finished the first draft of a new book in my Tide’s Way series which I try to keep unprovocative. It’s a romance and hopefully my readers will like it just the way it is.
I agree. It is the age of the offended and the wronged. It seems so many are just waiting their turn to join the ranks of the offended or those wronged.
There are no longer any accidents; it’s always someone’s fault. And time for litigation.
Politically correctness and the hijacking of harmless words to have a more sinister meaning has pretty much muzzled any remedial discussions on topics that need discussing such as race, gender, politics and basic humanities