Thursday, August 26, 2010
Discovering Your Choices
You know, I’ve had some strange weekends this summer. And in contemplating all I’ve done, I realize somewhere along the path of my life, I made some interesting choices. And per discussions earlier this summer regarding how perspective changes as you age, I took some time to wrap my head around how I got here.
Honestly, how did I end up with dressing up to attend the Northern California Pirate Festival on Saturday, then put on my lime green and turquoise to support my NASCAR driver, Carl Edwards, at the race in Infineon Raceway? On the same weekend? The path I walked to get here is really convoluted!
When younger, you have a myriad of possibilities ahead of you. The world is your buffet and you have the power to choose and choose and choose. Of course, my experience with youth is that they waste these choices. Or more importantly, they waste the opportunity to change their mind. To admit they made a mistake, learn from it and take a step backwards. They are so focused on the future and forward momentum, that they refuse to retreat, regroup, re-choose.
The older you get, if you’re lucky, you are more forgiving of your bad choices…or…let’s call them poor choices or simply not the best choices…and you don’t let them limit what you do next. Be it retreat and redo or simply move forward ignoring what you did before.
For example, in school you pick a major that you believe you’ll love and, most importantly, you’ll earn a damned good living at. You are three years into the four year degree. And, man…this sucks. But you picked it! You can’t retreat! That would be like giving up. And you have these student loans to pay and you need the money and…and…and… So, you finish the degree, you get a job, you work it.
And you’re basically miserable. Now, your parents told you that if you really wanted to change degrees, they’d help out, they’d support you. Your friends at the time told you to dump the accounting classes and follow your heart into the theater, dentistry, whatever. But, you felt honor bound, if I can call it that, to finish what you started.
Sigh.
Youth can see things so black and white. Characters in fiction often operate in this fashion also. We, the writers, need them to do this so we can teach them why they are wrong and offer up a solution that involves falling in love, having a child, taking a new job, or, when I write, saving the world.
It’s always the extreme choices that make the best fiction, IMHO. But!
Extreme choices don’t always make the best real life.
I made a lot of interesting choices. I seldom let one wrong choice lead me for long. I’d make a rotten character in a story! Or I’d be the flakey woman who the heroine would badger for being flakey.
Anyway! I was believer in real black or white. As most young people are. And I flitted, but I flitted thinking this was the one thing I’d be called to do! Yes! And this would be the one friend, the one who I’d bond with for life.
Eh, never worked that way. As I get older, I realize this was all about choices I made and choices I unmade. And it was good. (Okay, I made one choice that I stuck with, I am the woman who celebrated 30 years married in May.)
At the urging of the Bo’sun, I went to the movies and saw “Letters From Juliet” a while ago and I was quite charmed. (For one thing Franko Nero is hot. And my new poster man for every silverton hero I write from now on.)
*fanning myself
But I love how the idea of making a choice is revisited in this movie! Firstly, you have young lead, who gradually realizes she can actually change her mind. The young male lead, who does and has his heart broken. (For a little while. It is a HEA movie, after all.)
But to me, the real story was the senior heroine. At 15, she chose to follow her parent’s lead and not her heart. And she didn’t go to Leonardo. She went home to England, met a man, married, had children, who had children. She didn’t really regret, but she wondered. And when reminded that choices can be revisited, she did it.
She’s so brave as they search for her Leonardo…and they see a lot of nice, senior, hot men.
*fans self again
But when finally facing the reality of her Leonardo, she tries to back away. It’s too scary, it’s too real. Luckily, he arrives and the reality of him sweeps her doubts away. For me, the movie could have ended there, but they had to finish up with the main lead story, the kids.
Ho hum. Both Bo’sun and I felt this was handled a bit awkwardly, but it concluded nicely and everyone was happy, walking among the vineyards of Italy.
Vanessa Redgrave was wonderful. And she and Franko Nero are husband and wife! They met decades ago while filming Camelot. Hard to beat that for real romance! And a choice that lasted.
Topic of the day: Choices. The good, the bad, the ugly. And the redos, the new choices…writing, living, watching. Your experiences? The experiences of your characters?
Honestly, how did I end up with dressing up to attend the Northern California Pirate Festival on Saturday, then put on my lime green and turquoise to support my NASCAR driver, Carl Edwards, at the race in Infineon Raceway? On the same weekend? The path I walked to get here is really convoluted!
When younger, you have a myriad of possibilities ahead of you. The world is your buffet and you have the power to choose and choose and choose. Of course, my experience with youth is that they waste these choices. Or more importantly, they waste the opportunity to change their mind. To admit they made a mistake, learn from it and take a step backwards. They are so focused on the future and forward momentum, that they refuse to retreat, regroup, re-choose.
The older you get, if you’re lucky, you are more forgiving of your bad choices…or…let’s call them poor choices or simply not the best choices…and you don’t let them limit what you do next. Be it retreat and redo or simply move forward ignoring what you did before.
For example, in school you pick a major that you believe you’ll love and, most importantly, you’ll earn a damned good living at. You are three years into the four year degree. And, man…this sucks. But you picked it! You can’t retreat! That would be like giving up. And you have these student loans to pay and you need the money and…and…and… So, you finish the degree, you get a job, you work it.
And you’re basically miserable. Now, your parents told you that if you really wanted to change degrees, they’d help out, they’d support you. Your friends at the time told you to dump the accounting classes and follow your heart into the theater, dentistry, whatever. But, you felt honor bound, if I can call it that, to finish what you started.
Sigh.
Youth can see things so black and white. Characters in fiction often operate in this fashion also. We, the writers, need them to do this so we can teach them why they are wrong and offer up a solution that involves falling in love, having a child, taking a new job, or, when I write, saving the world.
It’s always the extreme choices that make the best fiction, IMHO. But!
Extreme choices don’t always make the best real life.
I made a lot of interesting choices. I seldom let one wrong choice lead me for long. I’d make a rotten character in a story! Or I’d be the flakey woman who the heroine would badger for being flakey.
Anyway! I was believer in real black or white. As most young people are. And I flitted, but I flitted thinking this was the one thing I’d be called to do! Yes! And this would be the one friend, the one who I’d bond with for life.
Eh, never worked that way. As I get older, I realize this was all about choices I made and choices I unmade. And it was good. (Okay, I made one choice that I stuck with, I am the woman who celebrated 30 years married in May.)
At the urging of the Bo’sun, I went to the movies and saw “Letters From Juliet” a while ago and I was quite charmed. (For one thing Franko Nero is hot. And my new poster man for every silverton hero I write from now on.)
*fanning myself
But I love how the idea of making a choice is revisited in this movie! Firstly, you have young lead, who gradually realizes she can actually change her mind. The young male lead, who does and has his heart broken. (For a little while. It is a HEA movie, after all.)
But to me, the real story was the senior heroine. At 15, she chose to follow her parent’s lead and not her heart. And she didn’t go to Leonardo. She went home to England, met a man, married, had children, who had children. She didn’t really regret, but she wondered. And when reminded that choices can be revisited, she did it.
She’s so brave as they search for her Leonardo…and they see a lot of nice, senior, hot men.
*fans self again
But when finally facing the reality of her Leonardo, she tries to back away. It’s too scary, it’s too real. Luckily, he arrives and the reality of him sweeps her doubts away. For me, the movie could have ended there, but they had to finish up with the main lead story, the kids.
Ho hum. Both Bo’sun and I felt this was handled a bit awkwardly, but it concluded nicely and everyone was happy, walking among the vineyards of Italy.
Vanessa Redgrave was wonderful. And she and Franko Nero are husband and wife! They met decades ago while filming Camelot. Hard to beat that for real romance! And a choice that lasted.
Topic of the day: Choices. The good, the bad, the ugly. And the redos, the new choices…writing, living, watching. Your experiences? The experiences of your characters?
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73 comments:
Crumbs! Is this the week of the Blue stocking by Any Chance, Second Chance?
I think Sin, Hal and Bosun have already explored some very deep issues:
I write therefore I think; Characters evolving in the mind; Character traits buried within us
And today we touch on the 'Free will and Determinism' debate.
Until yesterday I would have said that I'm definitely in control of my choices. I make rational decisions based on the evidence and my desires with perhaps some bias from morality, academic freedom etc.
Then I discovered some statistical research which concluded that the perfect waist to hip ratio for a woman is 0.7. Any woman with this ratio is totally irresistible to any man.
I was of course skeptical, thinking that the work must be flawed. But then I discovered that Marylin Monroe had the perfect ratio. Now I'm very confused!
Perhaps I'm not in control after all. :shock:
I reckon it needs a woman's mind to straighten me out now! :lol:
This is a fascinating topic (and now I sort of want to see that movie). I'm just now hitting 30, so I'm younger than most on here, but I'm losing that "I have to plan out every detail of my future life, make all the right choices, and then prepare for it in all the right ways" mentality.
Eh. Life happens. That's my new motto. I certainly never planned for this life, but I can't imagine anything better, so it's all cool (unless, of course, there was a maid involved. That would be way better).
It's fascinating, though, to apply this to characters. The book I'm revising, the heroine is Naomi. And she sacrificed everything in her life (and I mean everything, right down to her home, her child, and her identity) to clear her dead husband's name (who was branded a traitor when he died).
So now, at the beginning of the book, she's faced with this awful realization that every single choice she made was based on lies, and frankly, it was the wrong choice. And now, as she scrambles to reclaim what she lost, things get even more messed up. So she can't necessarily retreat, but she's got to figure out a way to get past those choices she made before.
I want to see that movie too!
Choices. Great topic! In my youth, I'm not so sure I felt like I couldn't retreat from a choice. I think I did change my mind - - A LOT. Or maybe it was more not finishing what I started. Actually, I'm only now making the connection that I was kind of like my characters in my youth -- not really believing my choices were in my control. That kind of fatalist thinking makes choices seem like they weren't meant to work out in the first place.
It takes a while to figure that out and make choices that aren't destined to fail because of not totally cutting the ties with what others expected. Until that was done, it was just a temporary rebellion I didn't really believe in. Once I let go of some "rules" of my upbringing and religion, I think I could make choices with a clear conscience, so to speak. Choices that feel right, if that makes sense. I think that's partly why I'm drawn to Naturalist style literature, but still want to change it to a happy ending. Kind of a personal victory over fate.
Whoa, too much thinking this early. LOL Now off to classes for some more!
Nice post, Chance! I haven't gotten to see this movie yet, so I skimmed the last paragraph so I wouldn't see TOO much about the ending! (I think Netflix will have it in a couple weeks.)
I agonized a lot over choices when I was younger -- trying to make sure I made the "right" one. I think it was because I was unwilling to do all the hard work necessary to UNDO a wrong choice. LOL So to me it was partly efficiency. And partly trying to be "good".
As I've gotten older I can see how some of the choices DO make themselves, no matter what. And I'm fine with that.
I've said this before, but I finally feel qualified to experience my 30's now. LOL I wasn't when I was in my 30s. :)
Ah, but ya be in control of the choices you make when confronted with such a perfect woman, Q! Though, 'course, you may be fighting a bit with human nature....
Is this the deep thought week? Well, it will be party on Sunday, so hang in there!
Well, Hal, if yer character is aware that these were choices not fate, then yer ahead a' the game. My point being you can always change yer mind.
Granted, she's got quite a tangle to untangle when it comes ta backing out of this...or pushing through it to the point of having new choices...
But that's what makes a good story! Now, you put her there and you have to figure out how to open her life up to find new choices... It's gonna be a fascinating thing to do!
And yeah, life happens. But it's your choice whether to view it as magic or shit. Whether you are at the wheel and can turn the gale force winds of life to drive you where you want to go, or be blown helter skelter where they blow you!
Or if they are really bad, whether you're going to simply hang on and enjoy the trip! ;-)
Go! Melissa! Study! Grow new brains!
So nice to see her toddle off to class with her thermos full a' rum and the hardtack all wrapped up neatly in wax paper.
Hope I remembered ta put one a' the good apples in her Dukes of Hazard lunchbox...
;-)
Yeah, Melis...you got it. Growing up enough to realize that you actually, honestly, really and truly, have control. Or the other dreaded word...da da dum! Responsibility! Which is really a powerful word. Becaus it means you can change your mind and make new choices! Or at least choices the align with your core...those you are more likely to succeed with!
And as you write, you are choosing the HEA for your characters.
Yeah, the core of our characters dictate which choices work out for them and their stories... What an interesting week it's been! ;-)
Oh, I like yer thinking, Donnaroo! Avoiding making the wrong choices... But! The wrong choices are, unfortunately, usually the choices we learn the most from. And how we ultimately determine what the right choices are!
I like how you tie it into being lazy... "I better do this right the first time because I don't want to do it again to get it right!"
I don't know if that ever entered into my mind when younger. I was more likely to shift into neutral and coast when I wasn't sure. I left college after only one semester because I just couldn't decide what I wanted to do there! I had the brains and the will, but why get a degree until I knew what I wanted to do with a degree!
My arc of laziness was more stop everything if uncertain and just drift for a while.
It’s always the extreme choices that make the best fiction
I believe this is true. The most annoying characters I've ever watched or read were "wafflers"--you spend a lot of your time screaming, "Shit or get off the pot, damnit!"
I'm not suggesting characters shouldn't change their mind. A lot of fiction is about a character being determined to do ONE thing, then coming to the conclusion that they want something else.
There's a very good reason for this.
Focus.
Most books/stories take place over 1 week to a few months (tops). Occasionally I've read books where they skim over the course of a year, but a lot of stuff happens within 2-12 weeks. WEEKS. That is focus. If you have a character who waffles that much during a limited amount of time, yes, we're right to say, "That person is a flake. This is a person who doesn't know what they want." We admire people who KNOW what they want--probably because so few of us know what we want. *LOL* "Oh, look! Someone has it together!"
What you described above is the benefit of having lived a few decades. You have perspective. But if you monitor your decisions making for 2-12 weeks, and focus on your MAJOR decisions (and not what you're going to eat for supper or where you're going to get gas), how many of those change in that amount of time? In the last 12 weeks, have you decided NOT to be a writer? In the last 12 weeks, have you decided not to be a wife?
Most genre fiction encourages writers to focus the amount of time that passes--to give it the sense of urgency to keep the pages turning. But if you wrote a series with those characters, it would only make sense to eventually have those characters change their minds, because as you say, that's what we all eventually do. Although occasionally, there might be one or two things never change. I think we all want to believe there is someone we'd always be with, a friend we'll always laugh with, a donut we just won't stop turning down.
I won't share my choices--although I would say if I had decided in year 3 in college I didn't want to be that major anymore, my father would have beat me silly. I wouldn't have DARED to change majors. He didn't believe in me going to college to begin with--hell, the poor man thinks college ruined me to this day!--but I never had a real moment's doubt about English--though I toyed with being a dual major in History *LOL*. But other than those two, there wasn't any other major I can imagine I truly wanted to be. HOWEVER, I *suppose* if I had confessed in year 3 that I actually wanted to be a TEACHER, Dad would have let me go the extra year or so to make up for it. He's never gotten over that I don't have a real job.
I've had characters that change their minds...and I have one or two that seem to change them all the time. "I love him. I hate him. I love him. I hate him. I love him..."
Hel - True, most books only focus on a few weeks of a character's life. But! There are choices the characters made off camera that are in play before we open that first page.
In Hal's book, her lead made choices decades before that only in the immediate book is she having to face and shift perspective on.
With our characters, those are generally the choices we're toying with and having them consider. The Duchess that left her husband and now is looking at him and wondering if she could change her mind... (I think I read that book...;-)
With RL...yeah, when younger we don't change our minds because the consequences seem so heavy. You can look back on your college days and think, "Yes, I could have done that." Back then, the could was so heavy, it wasn't possible to consider it as an alternative.
But! You could take classes now and add a history major to your credentials. But it would involve a whole lot of choices reg. how much you'd change your life!
Now, as for choices I've made in the last 9-12 weeks? Well, personally, I had some big ones come up, but that doesn't happen all the time. With food and what to have for dinner... Those are interesting choices to make when you are considering overall health and well-being. They seem like little choices, but wow, they carry huge impacts...cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugar... Sigh.
Nah, the reasons why I didn't double major the first time are still in play. *LOL* I have no interest in government classes; and the place where I went required government classes. (Yes, I still have no interest in government. Like I have no interest in business.)
*distracted*
Dear GOD, Josh Turner is on the TODAY show, singing and he sounds as great LIVE as he does on the radio. My skin felt on fire just listening to him. That VOICE. OMG.
Ah, the secret of government classes is to not take it personally.
*evil grin
Who is this Josh Turner?
Well, where the hell did my comment go!?
Anyway! As I wrote before...the trick with government classes is to not take them personally!
*evil grin
And who is Josh Turner and why should I care about his voice?
ohh I LOVE Josh Turner's voice. Mmmmmmmm.
You've got some good points, Hellie. My entire book takes place in less than 48 hours. I actually added a by-the-minute countdown to the top of each scene because it's so fast-paced and packed.
But it's definitely past choices now haunting the characters. It's like a do-or-die crest point where you have to fully commit or fully back away. No waffling allowed :)
Hal - Sounds like a double episode of 24. Not that I ever watched that show...
But I like the countdown aspect...
And yup, she's looking at her choices from years earlier and dealing with the repurcussions. Repurcussions I'm sure she never thought would be part of her life or consideration. I mean, he was dead, right???
And Hel - You could always take classes on history and forget about anysort of credentials. Take 'em because you want to take 'em for you! That's what I did when I went back to school. Just fer me personal edification!
You could always take classes on history and forget about anysort of credentials.
Or I could read some books about it! Do some research myself! I can learn the Abe Lincoln way.
I could also toss in that it's not just the choices of your hero--past and present--that's necessary, but all the choices of all the characters in the story--and maybe some who aren't directly in the story (i.e. they're dead or in another location). It's the job of the writer to narrow the focus of the choices and characters to focus on so the reader doesn't lose interest.
Definately, you can self-educate... I'd like to think my life is one big self-education... With recess now and then. ;-)
When writing, you obviously have to focus on the choices that impact your characters and your story. I suppose, if one were writing about the Civil War and how it tore a couple apart, the choices of the government might come into play, but only as the big wind that blew the characters about...
Ooops, "unconscionable" -- I knew it was a bigger word than what I typed. LOL
Hellie, I think you mentioned how you hate "waffler" characters. Well, I'm kinda the opposite (big surprise! LOL)
The other night when I was weeping and wailing and gnashing my teeth over a TSTL heroine. . .it was precisely because she didn't consider the choices. She just dashed in and did what she wanted, without considering the consequences. If she does that and it only affects her, fine. Evolution will take care of her shortcomings.
BUT, if she also endangers others, especially people she supposedly loves. . .I find that unconsciable. (I suspect you will too -- so we're not disagreeing but talking about two different aspects of the topic.)
Ah! Consequences! This is where that dreaded word creeps in responsibility.
Being aware of how your choices impact those around you is tricky. Sometimes, those impacts are for the best... Like moving cross country for a better job, which pulls the kid out of her beloved school. Short term, she hates you. Long term, now you can afford to send her to college...
Wafflers, to my viewpoint, usually are too aware of how their choices might affect others, to the extent that they bounce back and forth between making actual decisions.
What do you think, Donna?
LOL, Maureen, I am cursed with the ability, and the need, to consider all options. Part of it is my personality, and it was reinforced by my legal training--you pretty much HAVE to see both sides of a situation in order to promote your side of the case.
But I don't think an individual's choices are EVER made in a vacuum -- somebody else is bound to be affected, even in a small way. I've had non-wafflers make choices that affected me, and it wasn't pleasant for me. So I try to keep others in mind when making a choice, even if I ultimately decide my needs/wants come first.
I'd say wafflers never settle on any decision for long. It's like the line from Sweet Home Alabama (that Hellie loves to quote but I'm beating her to it) "You can't ride two horses with one ass, Butterbean."
I have a theory, Donna, that things we hate are things we exhibit. Hamlet annoys me as a character because he doesn't want to make a wrong move, a wrong choice he would have to live with. (At least, this is what I got out of Hamlet--to those of you who have also studied it...) I think of it as a perfectionist quality--don't want to make a step that you'd have to re-take. Don't ever want to do anything wrong. Good luck with that. *LOL*
But I don't like the character who runs head long into a situation without thinking it through--a la Stephanie Plum. I don't care for that character either because I'm not that type of person (usually) and think these people should be in jail.
I like moderate characters--sensible ones--but clearly those aren't the most interesting characters to read. *LOL* We have the wafflers and the TSTL characters because they're more dramatic to read. They're easy humor marks.
Those who run in heedless or without thinking I don't think qualify as wafflers, but I'll let Hellie say if that's what she meant.
Sorry I'm late. I'm starting to hate mornings. Have to run out to for a while, but I promise to join the fray when I return.
Oh, yesterday I made a choice. The condo can go to someone else, I'm done. :)
*LOL* That is my favorite line from that movie. *LOL*
Oh, most assuradly! No choices are made in a vacuum. I meant that I have a different perspective on wafflers than you do...that wafflers are more likely to be those who don't make choices. They are so back and forth on how what they do will affect others that they make no choices. Which means, of course, that choices are made for them.
In the end, everything we do influences someone else. It's weighing the impact that enables us to make a choice...and re-make a choice if things go wonky.
Well, they're easier to read but they are also easier to write. Because consequences fall all over them. And as writers, we make hay with consequences!
WEEEEEE!
Right after the Nationals, I read the new Victoria Dahl and her hero in that book is one for overthinking consequences and shouldering a level of responsibility that is hilarious. In regards to every choice everyone around him makes...in an extremely practical manner!
I think we as writers, can use any choice to create interesting stories. And characters.
Bo'sun you made that choice WEEKS ago. Your decision was allowed to stand yesterday--congratulations! *LOL*
they are also easier to write.
I don't think ANYTHING is easy to write. I think it's difficult to write a TSTL character and make them likable. A lot of readers complain about TSTL characters; they're hard to do. Drama is easy; comedy is hard...and TSTL characters generally fall into the comedy line.
Butterbean...I love words like that...
In that situation, the horses are going to make the choice for you!
I’ll let Hellie say if that’s what she meant.
I was talking about the 2 extreme types of characters: wafflers vs TSTL characters, which are opposites in my opinion. I'm sorry I wasn't clear.
Terri, congrats! What a relief that is for you. I'm so glad to hear that.
And I just watched Sweet Home Alabama a couple weekends ago, so I could know what you guys were talking about -- and I swear I didn't hear that Butterbean line! Now I know you guys are making shit up! LOL
Donna - Gotta be her dad and his bit of wisdom in that line. I don't remember where it falls, but I can hear him saying it.
Ah! I said easier not easy! I do think some characters are easier because there is a clear line of action or reaction.
The trick to making it interesting or more engaging is in not following that clear line or expected action/reaction. But to make something new of it.
Now, that is hard to do! But, oh! What fun!
What an interesting Captcha code... PUFU!
Oh, okay -- for some reason I was figuring it was her love interest.
I have to go out and soak up some of this beautiful weather -- it inspired a LOT of writing mojo yesterday, so I want to see what two days in a row will accomplish!
See ya later, pirates. :)
Ah! I said easier not easy!
I don't think it's easier either. Writing is hard no matter what.
It's her Dad. It's at the wedding.
Ah, come on! There has to be some easier aspects now and then! Else were all masochists and though I might embrace that concept in some aspects of my life...
Don't go there, crew. I'll cut off the rum...
...I have to state that I have had days where the writing was easy.
Fine, Donna, abandon us for the sunshine...
And yeah, life happens. But it’s your choice whether to view it as magic or shit.
Chance, this totally resonated with me. :) Rolling with the punches, finding the joy in where the path is taking us. Laughter, the people who choose to stand by us, the little gifts of every day. That's where the good stuff is.
One of the key themes in my story is that it's not enough for the characters to accept their choices, but they come to be grateful for them. My heroine comes to like the part of her that was a mistress. My hero comes to really like the strength in him that made him live through years of social disgrace. They wouldn't be who they are without those things. And they wouldn't trade those experiences. Even if they wouldn't want to do them again.
Marn! A pirate after me own heart! I so agree with that concept. Embrace the choices, good or bad, because when you embrace yourself, as is...they all had a part in building who you are.
And if you don't like who you are, then make new choices!
I think of some of the harder aspects of my life and have to come to grips with how those bad choices saw me where I am now...somewhere I like. And...if I had my life to live over would I make different choices?
What would I have to give up if I did?
I love it when characters can view their past choices and circumstances as part of who they are, period. And use it as ballast to keep moving forward...not an anchor to hold one still...
Okay, Bonnaroos wimpering and pleading soft brown doggie eyes have guilted me enough this morning. Time for her walk!
Ahoy mateys! Good post Chance, I will probably be suckered into seeing that movie because my 9 year old will want to see it. She will make the choice to swoon over the younger male character, though. Not the senior men.
Now me? I think your picture up there is a well established looking ... grandpa. Alas, I am a mere 32 days from reaching the ripe old age of 30. Yes, you heard me. The big 3-oh. And what have I experienced? What choices have I made?
Both good and bad, I'm sure. My motto is - live with no regrets. I make a decision and I try to live up to that decision. I think Chance read my diary before posting the college example, because that's me - but I went to college and changed mind. Several times. But still I sit, up to my neck in studen loan debt, still in school because it defers my loans another day. Yes even though I am incurring new loans to do so. I know, stupid right? This is one choice that I regret. The offer of "free" money is hard for a young working mother to pass up, but it will catch up with you!
Other choices that I have NOT regretted - the decision to have a preventative surgery to reduce my breast cancer risks. Yes, even though I had complications and ended up with about hmm... 8 extra surgeries... I do not regret that decision, that choice that I made.
My characters are going to be faced with some tough decisions, especially once the plot twist at the end is exposed. When you are betrayed by your mentor, where would you turn? Hmm...
Hellie -
You say you don't like characters who rush into things, and the first character that popped into my mind was Rachel Morgan from Kim Harrison's series. I am a perfectionist and so I should hate her character. But, I do not. I love her, and I will run out and pay $500 (exaggeration) for the next hardback book that comes out too. I think if the character is built with enough good qualities, that gets you past the wishy-washiness or the head-firstiness (I made that up), and you can love that character.
Mornin'! Yo'Ho is right. But not about grandpa. Girl, you'll see it eventually... Ah, I remember turning 30...seemed so scary, NOT!
But I figure I'm the exception on that.
Now, you've had some rough choices to make, that be very true. I know the college thing is dicey. See, I dropped out when I just couldn't see me makin' a livin' at what I thought I wanted to major in. I mean, what would a history major do save fer teach. And I did not see myself as a teacher, period.
I made a choice to see what life experiences I could rack up before thinking about going back to college. Which I did, eventually...somewhere around when I turned 30, I think!
Que ironic!
And I get the breast choice. And am so glad you're finally on the mend and doing better.
Betraying a mentor, eh!? Well, I bet there were choices that mentor made back there that influenced your character's choice!
Yo'Ho, Rachel drives me crazy. I love the world Kim created...but find Rachel endlessly annoying. Hearts in the right place but I swear, the woman has no brain!
Yes, I made the decision a while ago, but it was official yesterday. Of course, the seller is dragging his feet on signing the release, which is most annoying.
I think most of the choices I made when I was young were solely based on getting away from what I knew. I was running headlong into what I didn't care, I just knew I wasn't looking back.
There are choices I wish I could change, but as Chance says, they all got me here. And I like here. I've no problem changing my mind, clearly (lol!), but I do the "Well I picked this path and by golly I'm going to stick with it" policy way more often than I should.
I'm not sure I followed the trail correctly, but I think Chance is right that it's easier to write a compelling story if your characters have big choices to make. Doesn't mean the writing of it is any easier, just that it might be more fun and much more interesting to read when finished. :)
Yeah, Bo'sun...it's hard to write a story around the choice of bacon in the morning or no bacon in the morning...even if the characters has a history of heart problems and needs to control her cholesterol or she's gonna have a heart attack like her dad and brother and...
I mean, it's real...but hard to build a story around! LOL!
I do think of choices made in the past and consider...what would I give up if I'd made different choices? Sure, might have swung better, might not have...
The choice to not make the choices your surroundings or situation would dictate for you is an interesting one. And one I think we see a lot of in fiction. The dirt poor heroine who will make any choice to not be in the same place when she is an adult and able to make choices.
Perfectly legit. And very common in RL.
Chance - betrayed BY their mentor. Kind of Dumbledorish - he seemed to hide lots of stuff from Harry, to "protect" him. Only this mentor had less morals than Dumbleydore!
And who the hell is Josh Turner?
And Chance, did you listen to that song?
Is this week done yet? I've had enough crap, craziness and chaos to last me until January.
I love choices. We could all run down the same path and have the same options and everyone one of us would do something different. Free will is one of the greatest things to experience in life. With all choices you run into the good, the bad, and the ugly but it's all about how you perceive the karmic bounce back from your choices. You have to learn how to grow from everything you do. And I think our characters have to be the same way. If there is no growth in our characters our readers can't relate to them as bigger than life characters on a page.
While Rachel is quite the scatterbrain halfwit sometimes, I would gladly pay $500 and more for the next book if I had to. I would maim people for it. Kim Harrison has one helluva imagination. Sort of like Suzanne Collins. And both of those series are all based off the choices we make in life and the choices people have made for us.
Ah, Yo'Ho...sorry. Betrayed by the mentor may not be as fun to toy with, but I like it!
Sinster - Aye, the karma is certainly part of how choices reverberate. And one of the darling things to play with when writing. I get such satisfaction out of seeing a karmic kick in the butt delivered!
And yup, listened to the song. Must go out and get that CD. So I can listen in the car. I find the car a very conducive location to let music steer me toward something I'm looking for...
It has been a long week, hasn't it? But a good week...now that we're at Friday. Though my DH got to give notice on Tuesday to a job he was soooooo ready to leave. And start a new one Sept 8th... Very good week for the DH!
Crap I just wrote stuff out and then forgot the captcha code and it's gone. Reply to Sin -
I agree! KH was the first author I'd ever met, and that was just this year. I was so excited to see her, and I asked the strangers next to me if we would all jump up and scream when she walked in. After looking at me funny for a few seconds, they replied no, but that we could clap. I was so excited!
Okay, Kim Harrison groupies...what will you pay me for ARCs of the first three of her books? Paperback, mind you...
I could use a vacation...somewhere tropical, so make it good!
Mau - I would give you a big hug!
Oh, yeah...how far is that going to go in my vacation account? Dream on, Riley!
E-Bay, here I come!
Now, you just read my story... about how I'm struggling to work, go to school, pay my bills, take care of my daughter and husband, and write my book... and you're gonna do me like that?
May the kraken take a giant shit on you! hehe :)
The Kraken understands me. And my need for the cash...
LMAO!! Janga and I posted at the same time.
Josh Turner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH1Z9DEDqpk
I will trade you an autographed copy of my WIP. lol.
Okay! Okay! Let me pull out my earphones...
Janga, in the meantime, yes...and the choices we create make or break the story. Our personal stories, too!
Well, this could take awhile, my computer is buffering...
*eye roll
*snicker
Good one, Riley!
OK, he had a very nice voice. Very nice.
Someday, you'll be BEGGING me for an autographed copy of my book. And I'm going to say... hey, remember that time... on August 27th at 4:20ish EST when you turned down my offer? Well... ya slackin'... ya get eaten by the Kraken.
I'm off to see the Bonnie free from her Caravan kennel...another stroll and we head home to continue taunting Riley from the house... ;-)
Did I not send you Karmacode?
and you’re gonna do me like that?
May the kraken take a giant shit on you! hehe
Quite possibly one of my favorite comments of all time. LOL
Yeah, but I can listen on the computer, not on the cars CD system...
You think Riley has a point, eh? Well, I may find some suflides to slip on the rim of yer rum tankard, Sin... ;-(
Sorry I'm late in getting to comment on this blog post. Love the topic Chance.
It reminded me of one of the workshops I took at nationals - let me look up really quick who said it...
Ok- it was one of hte Sr. editors at Harlequin. She said "Let your characters make the bad choice. Don't let them always get it right."
I loved that quote because I think it lets our writing really speak to readers - we all make the wrong choice sometime and it helps them connect with our h/h and adds conflict to the story.
Another quote I wrote down from a pacing workshop was "Don't be afraid to break things in your story. Sometimes let them be broken and don't fix them. In fact, then break them even worse."
That quote stuck with me because it adds such an emotional element to the characters living with that "broken" thing - and I think wrong choices are one great example of breaking something in the story.
Better late than never, Scape! You did well at the workshops...I got the bit about story cores...but that was from lunch!
Well, I did pick up a bit more...
Anyway! Aye, breaking things in the story is the right way to think of it. But always leave the ability to mend. And with choices, to rechoose!
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