I Hope You Are Not Narrow-Minded

Narrow-mindedness kills, you know?

It prosecutes, with no mercy. It spreads fear and sadness. It divides.

My father once told me not to write controversial, unconventional stories or ‘blasphemous’ ones. I read between the lines: people will judge and condemn – their narrow-mindedness will crush me down.

So I tried. To do as he had said.

But I couldn’t.

My first NaNoWriMo novel? It has Angel Gabriel being a sinner in it. Arthurian stories? There’s incest between Morgan and Arthur. My 12-year-old stories? Love between cousins.

Then in almost all of my stories, the evil is always good. I mean, I tend to sympathise a lot with the villain… and make him/her my protagonist, while he/she might also be my antagonist.

Why can’t I write something normal?

Normal… I just wasn’t born for that, I guess.

And this time, the novel-in-progress I’m currently working on… is focused on a lesbian love story. Including the evil being good. Including an apocalypse and chaos… (given the working title: Child Of Chaos)

Everyday I open MS Word (although I should be using Scrivener by now) and type some more words, edit already written paragraphs from the first draft, etc… and at times, I just stop and think.

I think back on what my father had said.

And I’m scared.

But somehow, I believe that many people have forgotten that a story… is just a story. It’s nothing more. If something displeases someone in a novel, he/she should not prosecute the writer or whatever.

Marion Zimmer Bradley wrote The Mists of Avalon where she condemns the Church and sides with the old religion, namely witchcraft. But in reality she is a very faithful Catholic, and she remained as such until she died.

Dan Brown (you already know what he wrote – it made such a scandal that I still remember the priest in my local church telling us not to read his book) is not really an atheist. He is a Christian, but who simply questions his own religion. Aren’t we allowed to do that? And whatever he said in The DaVinci Code it doesn’t mean that he thinks it to be true. We shouldn’t believe whatever the books try to tell us. They are here only to entertain. They convey stories, but not necessarily the truth.

And I heard that some people even dare to condemn Harry Potter because they believe that it’s going to influence children into practising witchcraft? Come on…

Why do some people take fiction so seriously?

Writing a lesbian story doesn’t necessarily mean that the writer is a lesbian. I’m not a lesbian, I’m bi actually… but does it really matter?

And I never committed incest, just so you know.

In the video a few lines above – a TEDtalk hehe, yes you’ll love it! – Elif Shafak underlines about everything I’ve just written. A story is only a story. It’s not necessarily connected to the writer. Writers are free to write whatever they wish, I believe. It’s only fiction for God’s sake!

So, dear readers, you’ve been warned. I’m not a conventional writer. Thus, I really hope you are not narrow-minded.

Anyway, whatever people say, nothing will stop me from writing! 🙂 Nothing should. And this applies to all of you, writers, aspiring or published!

An Evil Nymph.

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