One of the essential themes of the superhero genre is that of the double life. When the character puts on their costume, they are a powerful hero who rushes into the battle to save lives. But in order to conceal their true identity, they usually take on some sort of mild-mannered job or role that is the total opposite of their superhero persona.

• Batman is Bruce Wayne, an aloof billionaire playboy.
• Susan Storm of the Fantastic Four is a scientist.
• Spider-Man is Peter Parker, a nerdy newspaper reporter.
• Superman is Clark Kent, another nerdy newspaper reporter.
• Wonder Woman is Diana Prince, an ambassador to the United Nations.

Superheroes aren’t the only ones who live double lives. We writers can develop an alter-ego if we’re not careful.

It’s easy to appear bold and brave on the page… but how do we handle the challenges of real life?

Are you dealing with your personal problems head-on, or are you avoiding them?

Do you engage in hard conversations about hard things, or do you shut down when you are confronted with a truth you don’t want to hear?

Would the people who know you best describe you as brave? Focused? Determine? Disciplined? Or would they say you’re aloof, timid, or uncaring?

Tough words, to be sure. It’s hard to face our real-life problems instead of running away from them. And it’s easy to turn to substance abuse or other unhealthy patterns and addictions and run away from reality.

Henry David Thoreau said, “How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”

Just because we’re writers doesn’t give us the license to check out of real life. We need to show up for real on the stage of life where the action is happening. None of us are perfect, but our writing should reflect the person we are trying to become—bold, brave, and above all, a true-life superhero to the people we love the most.