Nikki Bywater On Speaking Out and Speaking Up

Words can come easy at times, they flow and grow into a perfect scene. Taken from a dream our imaginations allow us to run free and flow into our deep and darkest inner mind and we create. We invent. We have a cast of characters ready to reveal their inner secrets, feelings and emotions in a heartbeat. Anything can happen along the way. We can also take it all away in a moment. We breathe life into our characters and take readers with us along for the ride, into the escapism of our worlds.

Writing about true life events. An event that changed our life forever. Not so easy is it? Personal feelings and knowing truth and trust must be respected at all times. Just how much to reveal too. Do you kiss and tell all. Do you hold back, speak out or go away quietly and say nothing?

Sometimes some things need to be said, stories have to be told. Those words can offer comfort and help others, help others to know they are not alone. To express ones feelings through the written word often can bring comfort at the darkest of times. It can be a source of revenge for some to express feelings, feelings of pain and disappointment, feelings of despair. A chance to express your point of view, give you a chance to speak and express yourself. A chance for closure. There is nothing worse when you meet a poor communicator, especially when it is during a time when good communication really counts. When a decision out of your control can come at a high cost for someone you know best.

Sometimes people can charge ahead without knowing the full facts and jump to the wrong conclusions. You can try and speak and try to get them to listen to what you know, but if they are unwilling to listen and judge a situation on what and how they see it. The spoken word means nothing. They send you free falling into the abyss and the impossible. When we write, we can write ourselves out of any situation, in real life we are powerless and must surrender to fate. Our path was written out, we knew were we were going, but in that split second everything changed and anything could happen.

One person's wrong decision. One person's will and way. Their way, their choice. With no ending in sight and no knowing what will come next there is a word that now stands up, stronger than the rest. HOPE. Hope is always there and hope can bring change for the better. Sometimes out of the hopelessness of a situation, hope will be there, followed by love, kindness and understanding things can slowly turn around. Now we are heading towards an ending. Now we can tell our story from the beginning and it will all make sense.

So we get our pen and paper and we make a start. We follow our heart and we do it because it is the right thing to do. To be outspoken and to make a stand. To fight for what is right and what needs changing. To turn something bad into something really good...