Unlikable characters

It's interesting the things we read.  I've been reading a book the last few days that isn't my favorite.  It has been tempting to put it down and not finish it, but I've invested enough time in it that I feel obligated to see it through.

If you read the title of my blog you will know why I'm not too fond of this book: unlikable characters.  I read and keep hoping these characters will stop and start making different decisions.  But, so far, my hope has been vain.

I know that when writing, the characters I create should be flawed.  However, they still need to be likable enough that you can look past those flaws or at least accept them.  

In real life this is a tricky thing.  We should love all men, but with some that is harder than others.  And unlike a novel, it's not appropriate to just discard them because we don't like them.  There is also the concern that we might be the unlikable character.  That is definitely a sobering thought.  I suppose the only way to deal with these concerns is to turn to another book - the Good Book.

Maya Angelou said, "While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God's creation."

Do What You Love

A few days ago I was part of a community service event.  It was held at a local college and brought together students as well as faculty.  I found myself working beside a young man, an English literature major as it turns out.  We talked as we worked and I found it hard to contain my excitement about being a writer.  I truly love this!

I think about the ups and downs of writing novels or articles, and honestly the downs aren't really downs.  There may be set backs, like struggling with how to resolve certain plot points or reaching the right person to interview, but they just aren't that big of a deal.  I love this too much to let it get me down.

There are many aspects of my life that are similar to my writing.  I love my family and I love my faith.  So, it's no chore to work on these things as well.  Sure, there are set backs, but that's part of life isn't it?  (I find when I'm doing something that I don't love it's time to ask why I'm doing it in the first place.)

The flip side of this can be true as well.  There are things that I just have to do, like the dishes, for example.  As long as I have to do it anyway, I may as learn to love it.  Over the years that's what I've learned to do.  I actually don't mind doing dishes these days.

Life is just too short to not love what it's about!

Impatience and Timing

Those of you who follow my blog will know that I recently finished writing my first novel.  So, I've been working on book number two, and I've got to say, it's an elusive little creature.  Just when I think I've got the right direction and feel for it, I look at it again and think maybe not.  I've even considered abandoning this particular idea in favor of one of my others.  Which brings me to my title.

One of my other ideas is actually my very favorite idea.  I like it better than the novel I just wrote and better than the one I am attempting to write now.  Whenever I grow disappointed in my current efforts, I toy with writing this favorite idea.  But, and here's the important part, I'm not ready to write it yet.  I don't want to write it and not do it justice.  I have heard of movie makers having this same sense about a movie that then became their magnum opus.  

And so, I retreat to my other ideas, working to hone my craft, to practice and practice and practice, knowing that one day all of this will pay off.  One day I will be able to write that book, and hopefully you will see why I had to wait and why the waiting was worth it.

We live in a society that does not much regard delayed gratification.  We want it all and we want it all right now!  This is short-sighted and will not serve us well.  That is what I remind myself when I grow impatient, when I threaten to butcher what should be and will be, eventually, a wonderful story.  It was the story I was born to write, but just not yet . . .

I'm up to two!

This week I received my second rejection from a publisher.  Woohoo!  I'm not disappointed.  I suppose I should be, but I just can't quite work up to that.  I know I have good company - J.K. Rowling, John Grisham, Steven King, etc.  I still have hope, and hope is essential in life.

I imagine if it were my twentieth rejection I might not feel so chipper, but it isn't.  So, I'll keep on trying.  It's also nice to have other writing options where I am receiving positive feedback.  That helps too.

Today is a day that speaks of hope.  The sun is shining.  The grass in peeking out from under the snow.  The bicycle is coming out of the garage.  We all need hope.  Even the weather and the world around us know this.

Broken People?

A few months ago I was gathered around a lunch table listening to the stories that flow from people about their lives.  Something as simple as food brings forth an astounding array of memories and experiences.

As I listened to one woman's tale of growing up, going to school, taking care of her brothers and cooking all of the family's meals - all while her able bodied mother looked on, my heart broke.  She said her husband cooks most of the meals because she has such a bad taste in her mouth about cooking.  He also grew up doing most of the cooking for his family, but it was approached differently.  His mother was still at work when he got home from school, but she would have laid out for him meat, thawed, along with any necessary ingredients and instructions.  Even though his mother wasn't physically there cooking with him, she mentally was.

I left that lunch table deep in thought.  Others around that table were obviously physically broken, in many ways, but I would not have guessed how psychologically scarred this woman was had she not told her story.

Aren't we all broken in one way or another?  Or at least we all have experiences that change us.  At times, when we are in the midst of those experiences, we think we are the only ones, that we are alone in our suffering, that no one will understand.  We may feel this way, but it is simply not true.

I believe this is one of the reasons I write.  I write to bring to light those things that break some of us, but also to show that they don't have to.  We can choose our own path.  We can choose our own reactions and responses.  We can indeed have hope.

I may write fiction, but I still hope that it rings true.

It's Monday. . . Again!

It's Monday morning, yet again!  What emotions does that phrase evoke in you?  Dread?  Discouragement? Downright depression?

I must apologize; I have given you a bit of misdirection, because I think it is GREAT that it's Monday, again.  I rested yesterday to fill my tank in preparation for the week ahead, but I was barely able to contain the excitement I felt about writing!  I couldn't wait to get going this morning to put proverbial pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard).

Isn't life just wonderful and fascinating?  Don't you just love to read a book that transports you places and transforms your thinking?  Can't you just imagine how I must feel about putting down those words that will hopefully one day transport and transform you?

All of you out there have different things that you will do today.  Some of them will be mundane and ordinary.  (I have a list of those to take care of myself.)  But in the process of doing those you can smile, you can laugh, you can imagine.  Doesn't that make this a great Monday?

Writing, writing and more writing

I was just talking with a group of teenagers yesterday about learning and how their own desire to learn plays a role in that.  It seems like an obvious connection, but we aren't always logical.

Have you ever felt like you wanted to "have" a certain amount of knowledge, but you didn't actually want to "gain" it?  In other words, you just wanted it plopped into your brain like in the movie The Matrix, without any effort on your part.  I must admit that thought has certain appeal.  But the reality of it is that the journey is important to the learning, and it can also be a lot of fun.

I started out writing with a goal of being a novelist.  I haven't deviated from that goal, but I have augmented it.  I'm now writing for two different monthly magazines, and I have my own column in one of them.  It is non-fiction writing, and at first I thought it unnecessary to my goal.  But writing, any writing, helps me hone my craft.  The journey has become as important as the goal.

And one last thought - when I love writing so much, what's not to love about writing more?