A few months
ago, I flew to Chicago for the annual client conference held by my agent. It
was my first time attending, having only been picked up officially that August,
so I was a bit out of my depth. I was in a strange city full of complete
strangers. I had absolutely no idea where I was going or who I was going with. If you
know me at all then, you know that these are things that usually send me into a
tailspin… but I maintained.
I was very proud.
As we were
waiting for the train to take us into the city for dinner, I listened to people
talk—“Hi, I’m blah, blah. Blah, blah
has been my agent for 2 years.”
“Oh, I know
you. My name is blah, blah. I’m with blah, blah.”
(not trying
to be disrespectful—just don’t want to use names… or maybe I just don't remember them.)
“So, what's your name and who are you with?”
It took me a
few seconds before I realized someone was talking to me.
“Ah… My name
is Maegan Beaumont and I’ve been with Chip for a few months.”
I sounded
like I was introducing myself at an AA meeting, but I managed to get the words
out without any nervous stuttering. Suddenly, the young woman standing in front
of me whirled around and after a few seconds of scrutiny, said, “You’re Maegan Beaumont?”
Oh. God. What did I do? The juvenile
delinquent in me was screaming—No. No you
are not. Deny, deny, DENY!!
“Yes…?”
She smiled. “I
joined the agency the same week Chip received your manuscript. It was the first
thing he gave me to read. I couldn’t get past the first five pages. I still
think about it,” she said. “I’m pretty sure it scarred me for life.”
I didn’t
know what to say. What did that mean? Was it really that bad? Before I could
say anything, she saved me from imploding.
“Oh, no. It
was really, really good… but it was too intense for me,” she said. “Most
writers have this fade to black moment
where they choose to leave the rest of a graphic scene to the reader’s
imagination. I kept reading your work, waiting for the fade to black… but it
kept going. I kept reading, waiting for it. Fade to black… I kept thinking, when is it going to fade to black? Fade to black. Dear God—FADE TO BLACK!!” She mimed flipping
through pages, her eyes as wide dinner plates.
She stopped
and smiled at me. “I took it back to Chip and said, “It’s really, really good
and really, really disturbing. Here you go—you should read it. And now you’re
here.”
I had no
idea what to say—again. I felt like an apology was in order but I swore to
myself a long time ago that I’d never apologize for anything that I’d written.
Maybe I should offer to pay for her therapy…
She turned
out to be the one person I really connected with in Chicago. We split a pizza
and she admitted that I was nothing like what she expected. I took it as a
compliment. We really didn’t talk about my work again (although, she did ask me if my husband was afraid to go to sleep around me...) but her reaction has
stuck with me. Four months later and I’m still thinking about it.
Fade to
Black.
I’ve tried
writing that way but it felt… almost like a lie. What I’d put on paper was not
what I really wanted to say—the problem was, what I really wanted to say was pretty freakin’ disturbing. I was worried
what my family would think. I was worried how, if it was ever read by the
general public, I’d be regarded (remember, nice girls don’t write about torture…).
Would the parents of my children’s friends think I’m a depraved lunatic and
keep their kids away from mine?
I was afraid
of offending someone. I was afraid of disappointing everyone. I was afraid of
what people would think.
I was
afraid.
But you can’t
write with fear—not if you want write with honesty and passion and all the
things that make a book worth reading. Good writing isn’t always pretty or
pleasant. It isn’t about what people want to hear. It’s about what you have to
say. As soon as I realized that, I was able to let go of all that worry and
doubt and just write. Instead of fading to black, I kept the lights on. I threw
open the doors and windows and wrote.
And what I
wrote scared me. Not the actual content… but it scared me that the words came
from me so easily. That I was able to go there without any real effort at all.
I felt the strong desire to delete it off the page before anyone else saw it. I
didn’t. I considered cutting it from the book. I didn’t do that either. I’ve
come to recognize that feeling this way is a sign that I’ve written something
that will affect people. And if we’re not affecting people with our words, then
what’s the point?
Truth is,
there’ll always be people who will be offended. There will be some who are disappointed or disturbed by the things I write. Who will see me differently. Who will build pre-conceived
notions about what I’m really like. And
as much as I wish it weren’t so, I can’t let any of that dictate what I write.
I’ll go crazy if I do…
So write what you want. Say what you need to say, in the most honest way possible. Don't let fear or doubt decide what you put on paper. You deserve better than that, and so does your reader.
Fade to
black. Or not...
It's totally up to you.
Release date: May 8, 2013
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