More Than A Label

I’ve struggled in the past year as a writer.

Why?

Because I let an experience become a label and a label become my personal brand.

After I wrote The Other Side of Charm, I limited my work to focus on explaining what it’s like to live with a psychopath, how to get away, and how to heal.

Which can help people. But the interesting thing about having once been a victim is that it doesn’t mean I still am.

My life, my mind, and my experiences are much, much bigger than what I went through with my ex. And so when I tried to cinch my natural creativity into a single vision, I cut myself off. I became stagnant.

And the only way I’m going to get out of that is to break down those compartments and let my personal brand encompass all of who I am.

Have you ever frozen up like that?

When I watch people around me, I wonder if and how they may be frozen in places. I think about how nearly everyone I know has gone through heartbreaking or traumatizing experiences — and how we often don’t talk about it because it’s uncomfortable and because we’re bigger than that one thing. I did the opposite in the past year. I felt like I could only talk about what’s uncomfortable in public because I was on a mission to help people who don’t have words for their (perhaps similar) experiences. But any single topic feels dull after a while to me. Like a dead end.

I can still put words to traumatic moments. But you know, I’m so much more than that, and I can’t sustain a public image that’s so narrow.

So get ready for some fresh writing. I’m going to start sharing posts and chapters and even novellas from all kinds of angles. I still center largely on relationships and psychological explorations, and I’ll still publish more on life with and after a psychopath. But my writing has to be bigger than that, because I am.

Happy reading!

H.G.