Imagine writing a story about your worst nightmares and imagine writing a story about a happy ending from that. How about writing a story with an ending that is not ever resolved or where the protagonist never got any closure? Imagine how that ends – the reader has to learn to accept it even after putting the story down, and guess what? That happens in real life too.
A fearless writer is a writer who is ready to go into the depths of their own shadows perhaps even to explore death, even if they’ve never had a near-death experience. Fearless writers imagine – taste, touch, feel, smell, and hear before running…when a T-Rex is about to enter the scene by surprise.
Having the perfect equilibrium to put their protagonist through what most people in reality are not willing to go through, are the stories that impact readers, these are the stories that change and shape our world.
You might be asking… but how? Let’s delve.
When a protagonist goes through experiences that most people do not want to find themselves in or go through, we teach readers the power of transformation. What it takes to transform. Transformation is costly. Why? We lose things and even people around us when we transform. Most of all, we lose what’s familiar to us. We are left to reckon with regret, shame, failure, loss, grief, and so much more. See why it’s not for the faint-hearted.
Taking a protagonist from an illusion to darkness and then into the light successfully tells the story that most people, who in reality don’t want to face themselves. Reading a protagonist’s journey through just that is less of a shock and less triggering. The illusion that people live in, going to the same pub forever up or down the road, playing the same music over and over again, making the same old jokes, behaving the way people expect them to be, because anything out of “your character” (if that is even your character in the first place) is safe for everyone, as long as you can play along with the illusion.
Then comes the disruption, “Boom!” One day, the protagonist’s whole world is crashing down on them. “Oh! Now, we can’t have that, can we?” For some reason, the old version of the illusion, i.e. fitting into the system, is much more acceptable, and guess what? Doing things the old way and sticking to old ways isn’t resolving anything, but in fact, now comes tons of new and unanswered questions buried deep within.
When a protagonist has to transform for the better, we teach readers the importance of growth through storytelling, with the hopes that readers will learn to understand themselves better and with the hopes to wake up from the momentarily spell-cast illusion.
Fearless writing demonstrates the strength that humanity struggles with. Every time a fearless writer approaches obstacles or complexities in the story alongside sensory language, they bring readers to close proximity to the experience. I mean, this is what makes the story go on. The fearless protagonist in the story might not have known that he/she is fearless. Heck, maybe the writer also didn’t know until later. When the writer forces themself to go deeper, know that the protagonist’s breakthrough is near.
There has to be a reason why the protagonist chooses to move from the illusion, and usually, this begins with a need, and this is true for every other person as they come closer to shattering the illusion. Exploring how dark the need can be, that it could even go chaotic, perhaps even into desperation, until our protagonist reaches the light, and looks back to see the greater picture, all the while the cracks to the need kept increasing.
If you come across fearless storytelling, understand the length of the tumultuous road the author (or any person telling the story) has been through before that story. What comes with that sort of storytelling is criticism, hate, jealousy, controversy, competition, and most likely an uncountable number of angles of judgement and so much more. What also comes with that sort of storytelling is a movement for the better, bravery, courage, strength, freedom, change and so much more. Now, that’s what I call fearless storytelling.
However, some last words from myself if it’s going to be fearless anyway, why not go full-on, or spill your guts if you want? The most successful wordsmiths after all use their words with great intention, and that’s the intention of doing good.
Rather fearless than fearful.
Looking forward to our next discussion, in the meantime take a look at my entertaining and educational video on my YouTube Channel about Fearless writers make fearless storytelling.
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Yours sincerely,
T. Dench Patel
