C.S. Pacat is a literary force to be reckoned with. They are the author of the internationally acclaimed comic book series Fence, and Dark Rise, their highly anticipated first YA novel, is already on the bestseller list. Pacat has lived all over the world in some incredible cities, like Tokyo and Perugia, and now resides and writes in Melbourne. With no WiFi in the house, or technology during working hours, Pacat focuses all their time on writing worlds and weaving magic.
DEAR ME,
You’re alone right now, and things are bad at home, in ways you don’t talk about. You don’t realise how bad things are because what’s happening is just normal to you. But it is affecting you in ways you can’t see. At school you have behavioral problems, and you think that’s who you are. You’ll lose friends. You’re going to flunk out of university.
I’d be there for you if I could. Someone should be. You have the sense deep down that something is wrong, but you won’t let yourself acknowledge it for a long time. You don’t know yet that the feeling inside you is fear, born out of what’s happening at home.
The ways that you escape – obsessively reading books, watching TV shows, writing fanfiction, or just going away mentally into a fantasy world – these will form the basis of your future as a writer. Reading manga instead of studying will turn out to be the most useful thing you ever do for your career. You don’t know that right now. Right now, it is a tactic of avoidance. It makes you feel like you’re failing. But you’re not.
Escapism is your resilience; your imagination is your joy and your protector. When no one else is there, you’ll have the ability to draw on yourself.
In the hardest times, you won’t need a helper. You’ll have a strength within. Don’t doubt it or yourself. And when you draw on that strength, you’ll find nothing can stop you. You’ll pick yourself up. You’ll get out of that house. You’ll start down your path. How do I know that? I’m here because of you.
I’m not going to tell you that the bad things that happened were valuable, or that they forged you into the person you are now. This didn’t make you strong, you were strong already. It’s why you’re going to survive what is happening to you.
But I will tell you that the path that you’re on is going to lead you out of the wilderness. You won’t be afraid. You’ll have people who care about you. You’ll get to daydream for a living. And tell stories made up of the threads of all you went through, and that will mean something to readers who went through stories of their own.
So, hang in there. You’re a good kid. I’ll be thinking of you.
LOVE, ME
