Black Hole

tapping your darkest material

Many writers worry about how their people, especially family and friends, will react to their work. Will people assume it’s autobiographical? Will they find themselves in the story, and, if so, will they mind that the portrayal’s unflattering? Will they imagine you yourself have perpetrated the crimes of your worst villains or suffered the humiliations of your most abject characters? Or simply assume that you are a nose picker because you've described one so vividly? These problems are minor compared to the ones I would like to remind you of.

First, stop and think about the most disturbing thing that you've ever done, or the most shameful experience you've endured. It could be something actually criminal, or just something very private, or a childhood transgression or humiliation. If possible, go for something you wouldn't talk about with anyone, ever, something that feels utterly unpublishable to you, something that makes you sweat just to think about it.

If you’re not already inhabiting this space in your work, try to sit down now, or soon, and write for 30 minutes — or as long as you can stand it — about this sort of topic.

Feel free to shred, delete or burn the result as soon as you're finished, especially if it’s personal.

But don’t forget it. You can use this kind of dangerous material, or something analagous or inspired by it — by placing it like a black hole at the gravitational center of a story or your a character. Just as you’ll never talk about your secret, this sort of narrative secret never needs to be revealed for you to use it as a kind of emotional thermonuclear reactor. A black hole is invisible to the naked eye and yet a galaxy whirls around it. It’s very invisibility makes it the most powerful engine of narrative imaginable (or unimahginable!). This secret may lie at the root of all your character's irrational behavior — or your entire story — all without ever being mentioned.

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