Saturday, February 9, 2013

Secrets Of The Universe

Writing fiction is interesting. You want to tell a satisfying story. You can only do this if you can create a satisfying arc for your main character. Which means taking them from one point to a different point where they have learned an important lesson or grown in some meaningful way, and demonstrated their growth through their actions. Essentially, along the way you need to teach your main character the secrets of the universe. Yesterday I was teaching my main character that love is unselfish. That when you truly love, you are willing to sacrifice for the people you care about.

You don't spend that kind of time considering these kinds of moral values without being changed. It's one of the things I love most about writing. Yesterday night I was sick. I felt miserable. And I wanted to go to bed. But my husband had worked late and the house was a wreck. Remembering the lessons I'm trying to teach my main character, I spent an hour sacrificing sleep, and cleaning so Cody could come home to a peaceful house.

And it was satisfying.

Like a character arc that really works!

2 comments:

  1. I love the idea of helping your characters arc by teaching them specific lessons (such as that love is unselfish). And to apply it to your own life is so cool. Now you not only know how a person (e.g.your protagonist) feels at the beginning of the lesson and at the end, AND you're changed a little, too. Perfect!

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  2. My friend, Nikki is really the person who helped me think about it that way. She is always asking me what is the central question of my novel. What is the big theme that I need to have a lot of my characters analyze and answer... and that the answer to that question changing from the start of the novel to the end is what makes things satisfying. It is so interesting to think about truth, and try to give that truth to my characters. It makes me think about my own life, and want to apply what I'm learning while I write.

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