I might not be the best writer in the world and hopefully I’m not the worst. But those are subjective things anyway that are out of my control.

I can talk about the things that accent and echo the writing itself, stuff like drive and ambition and hunger. I can talk about persistence and often do.

But I just want to focus on something that I feel I strive to do all the time. Perhaps something at the core of my writing.

I want emotional authenticity.

Maybe every author strives for that, and maybe every author would say they want that, but I don’t know.

I think there are some writers out there that probably write better than I do, yet don’t go for emotional authenticity.

My desire for this is why I write similar themes and why there is a tangible thread throughout all my stories. Because hopefully, I’m there with my characters, struggling with them, hurting with them, feeling their joys and their pains.

It’s all through my blurry windshield. So even though it might be some soul-searching scene, it still might be only visible through tainted lens. My tainted lens. My limited vision and viewpoint.

Still, I don’t think every novelist tackles a novel this way.

Some might try to paint pretty pictures. Others might to put you into some magnificent historical setting. Others drag you along some thrilling wild ride.

I don’t know if this emotional authenticity is a strong point in my writing. But it’s the thing I keep going back to, time and time again.

Whatever I’m writing, whether it’s a horror novel or a teen novel or a love story, I’m hoping and trying for an authentic emotional experience.

My hope is that it will translate into moving the reader.

The same way it so often moves me.