We’re All Just Trying to Rewrite the Hurt
Why we keep coming back to stories that heal the wounds real life never apologized for
You ever realize half your favorite fics are just therapy sessions with better dialogue?
same.
There’s something about the comfort of it all: the quiet ‘what if’ of fiction.
What if someone stayed this time?
What if you didn’t have to ask twice to be chosen?
What if you could build your own family out of misfits and discovered warmth anyway?
Reflecting on it, that’s why I keep coming back to found family and hurt/comfort tropes. every single time.
The moment someone gets tended to (literally or emotionally) I’m hooked.
It’s the way a cup of tea offered after a breakdown can feel like an entire religion. The way “you can rest now” hits harder than any “I love you”.
🕮 Bookish Mood Of The Week
Fanfiction writers: professionally patching trauma with glitter glue
When I was younger, I didn’t know how to rely on people. Or better yet, I learned I couldn’t.
Asking for help came with strings attached: expectations, the unspoken cost of owing something back.
So I didn’t ask. I learned to do everything alone and apologize for the inconvenience of existing.
And maybe that’s why I crave these stories: the ones where someone finally gets to be soft without it being used against them.
Even in my own books, the same patterns sneak in. No matter how I try to outrun them, I end up writing about broken people finding their way to tenderness.
I think that’s what we all do, in our own ways: we build little worlds where the hurt gets rewritten and reshaped, softened into something survivable.
Because that’s what fandom is, really: the collective ache of people trying to fix endings that broke them. Beyond escapism is empathy practice. rewriting the hurt so it finally makes sense.
P.S. if you want the unfiltered draft version of this rant, it will be in next week’s paid post, along with some writing tips for fueling your own journey
If this hit a little too close to home (sorry, i am exorcising my pain in the public forum because i crave to be understood), please heart it or tell me: what’s the one trope that always finds you?
Until next time,
𓂃🖊 Rachel
In case you missed it:
🎧Why we crush on fictional characters (and when it gets weird) | Rationally Insane Podcast