Writing with a broken heart

More single gal writing advice (and slightly entertaining drama too!)

Sorry that it’s been a while, fellow writers… readers… what are you? Write-eaders? Wreaders?

Um, but when you’re reaching down into your most sensitive self to write in any case, and then while your hand is down in there, other sharp things cut up your fingers, ruin your perfect manicure, wedge deep under your nails, you do tend to whip your hand back out and silent-cry over how bad that hurts. My hiatus was a combination of a case of the Satur-daze and also getting over a series of very depressing, domino-affected situations.

1. A good friend that I dated suddenly dropped out of my life and pulled the silent treatment on me while maintaining a seamless, happy friendship with someone else we were both close with.
2. Two more “friends” of mine fessed up to something truly shady that went on for a long time behind my back while I was still trying to heal from #1, and then either boasted about it or blamed me for having a hurt reaction.
3. Not long after #2 hit the fan, I thought I was moving on with yet another great guy who it turned out strung me along for weeks before finally calling, and then after rushing me out for a sketch "I finally have time for you" last minute date, disappeared.
4. Even more of ye olde bullshit while recovering from #1 + #2 + #3...

Writing when you're single, Part Three

I'll answer one more question about writing as a single woman—actually, as a single black woman—to wrap up the Writing when you're single series...

#3 How is being a black woman writer different? You’re the one who said it was, so no chickening-out, now.

So, some things are common to the human experience and to a woman’s writing experience, of course: wishing you were published like any writer, concern about being taken seriously within your genre (I think Anne McCaffrey is a good example—a woman writing what folks realized was science fiction in the 70s), and so on. But, has anyone here ever tried to write a fantasy fiction story for their favorite video game, did decently well, drummed up a good fanbase, and then wondered whether your fans even knew if you were black? Wondered if that would cause them to question what they’re reading, whether her characters in a fantasy universe (when these are predominantly white) really were so well-informed, or wondered if it would just be safer to keep your racial identity to yourself, or simply not bring it up so that you can keep focusing on enjoying the story? Can you even call that enjoying the story?