Every Book Has a Soul

How authors give pieces of themselves to you...

"Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it." Carlos Ruiz Zafon (The Shadow of the Wind)I've heard it once said that everything was created spiritually before it was created physically.

I couldn't agree more. Especially with books.

As an author, there is more than brainpower that goes in the pages I write. It's my fears, my struggles, my doubts, my hopes, my growth . . . essentially, my soul. I put all of my in the books I write, both fiction and nonfiction. I don't know how to write any differently.

I think it's because writing is my therapy. If you lie to a therapist, you'll never make progress. Same with writing. If you lie when you write, it will never be good, never be real.

You could argue that fiction is, in a sense, a lie, that it is a made up story, totally fabricated and untrue. While these thing are true, authors of GOOD fiction cannot lie. If they aren't truthful about the emotions they feel, the pain, the anger, the joy, the desire, their books will be shallow. Dead. Soulless.

Emotion is what breathes life into us. This is why empathy is so important. We feel things and when we learn that we can feel what others feel, we become connected. We see them, we feel them, and they become a part of us. Without emotion there would be no joy or misery, no happiness or grief. No soul.

When you write a book, you can't help but leave pieces of yourself between the lines and pages. And when you read a book, if you really read the book, you pick up the pieces and make them yours. You can feel the book, and in a way, feel the author. 

You feel their soul.

It's magical really.