“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
Leo Tolstoy , Anna Karenina
Where next?
Before continuing my path through this Citrinitas section of the book, I need to take a moment to reflect on the “WHY” of this book and “WHERE NEXT?”
As I’ve worked toward finishing this first “Bible-sized” draft of my story and my insights, I’ve also been thinking about draft # 2.
The important question about that next draft that has been percolating in the back of my mind is:
What is the best way to shape a publishable book from this full first draft, one that will deliver a useful, powerful, needed message to other survivors?
A fiction writer I follow described a story’s theme as “the truth of the main character.” I liked that. And I realized that works for memoir as well as fiction.
The bottom line is that however I shape the next draft, it needs to deliver my truth in my life…it needs to answer: What “theme” do I stand for and give the reader?
The REAL question
But there was an even bigger question that loomed over the first, one an agent, or editor, or publisher might ask:
“Why another book on abuse?”
From the start of this endeavor, I knew there absolutely NEEDED to be another story for readers on this topic; I knew it in my gut. But I also knew I would need to put that “gut knowing” into the right words of a compelling argument for any editor.
It has been in reading the news about yet ANOTHER incident of sexual violence against women…human beings…this time at Cornell. It is another HORRIBLE story that thankfully was brought out ONLY BECAUSE YOUNG WOMEN on the school newspaper refused to let it drop. And in that moment, I had my first clue to answer why another book….The power of STORY. It is only in the courage of the school newspaper’s reporters to deliver this story that there is a chance for justice to happen.
Now, I am not a lawyer or police officer or forensic analyst. So I cannot help the fight for justice in those ways.
But I am a survivor. A storyteller. A person who has BEEN THERE, even if my story details are different. I am a person who has had to walk, sometimes CRAWL back to healing…and eventually, even to thriving.
I have a story of my particular path through struggles, learning, survival, and despair. I have my own story of how I held on, refused to give up my life, and eventually reclaimed it to the best of my ability.
When I looked again at the question: “WHY ANOTHER STORY ON ABUSE?” I suddenly realized THAT IS THE WRONG QUESTION.
The REAL question is:
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