Paper Dolls

Paper dolls

Remember when you, your sister, or a friend played with paper dolls.  Their clothes changed depending on the task or activity.  However, their expression always remained the same. They were always happy, smiling no matter what the circumstances.  They were never worried, sad or fearful. They were fun to play with. No sorrow affected them. No tragedy touched them. You could leave a paper doll for a day, a month or a year. When you decided to play with them, again they always had the same expression.

Sometimes we as writers have a problem creating believable characters. The ones creative in our writing can be paper dolls or cardboard character.  Having no depth no real feelings.  A person’s childhood colors how they react to a situation.  Past failures made them cautious of making decisions.  They ache for love yet are fearful of rejection.  Are they driven by a desire for wealth or power?  How does this affect their family life?  Are they addicted to drugs and long to be free?  Are they hiding something in their past, terrified this indiscretion will be exposed. Do they weep in the middle of the night when no one hears.  If they are fired, lose a child or go through a divorce do they react with the same feelings as your next-door neighbor.  As you write, do their emotions touch you?  Do tears come to your eyes as they weep at the casket of their loved one?  Do you rejoice with them as they are united in marriage?  As they face danger, does their fear touch your heart? As you write an action scene does your heart beat faster? Do you feel the excitement of the chase? Are you the hunter or the hunted? Do you lose track of time? Do you get lost in the story?

What about the villain?  What kind of person are they?  What made them the person they are?  What is behind their actions?  Are they mentally unstable?  If so, why?  Can your reader hate them yet also feel sad for them?  No person is born with hatred in their heart, something has happened to make your villain this way.  Find out what it is. Even the villain is human and has those who love them.

 If your characters live and breathe, weep and laugh your novel will come alive.  If we as the authors do not feel the emotions of our characters neither will the reader.

I quit

                                                                 

                                                                     I quit

How many times as an author, have you quit?  In the beginning, you struggled over your manuscript writing and rewriting.  You just could not find the right tempo.  Then one glorious day it all came together.  Your idea became a story. You breathed life into your characters.  You continued to write adding new features.  Soon they became real, as real to you as your next-door neighbor.  You met with them daily you shared their joys their sorrows.  You came to love your heroes and to hate the villain.  Page after page you wrote and rewrote.  Late at night, you labored as the rest of the family slept or in the wee hours of the morning.  You laughed you cried wiping away tears you wrote.  Summer became winter winter passed into spring then summer came again still you plugged away.

Finally, you wrote the last sentence. Relief settled over you.  It was done.  Your novel your masterpiece completed. You celebrated.  The book, which changed your life, would now change others.

You searched for just the right agent or publisher.  You lovingly bundled your book like a baby.  With trepidation, you handled you dreams to the postal clerk.  You felt as if you were sending your first child to war.  You visited bookstores dreaming of seeing your novel on their shelves.  You watched other authors interviewed on TV thinking of what you would say about your wonderful novel.  Perhaps you would purchase a new car.

After all as a successful author, you could not drive the old one to all the book signings.

Therefore, you waited and dreamed.  You bragged to family and friends.  Soon you be wealthy.  Days became weeks and turned into months.  Surely, your book was lost in the vast U S Postal system.  Then one day when you had given up hope your manuscript came limping home.  The rejection letter tore your heart out.  Embarrassed you went to that dark corner alone and wept.  You moaned, you screamed, you cried.  You put away your writing materials.  You thought of burning the manuscript and all the copies.  Then the worst thing in the world happened you quit.  You swore you would never write another ting other than email or a grocery list.

 How selfish of you.  If you stop now we will never read your novel.  If Hemmingway quit the world would be deprived of The Sun also Rises.  If John Steinbeck stopped writing, we not have The Grapes of Wrath.  What of William Faulkner, of Thomas Wolfe and others what if they quit before they were published. No, you cannot quit!  Not now, or a year from now when you have received 10, 20 or a hundred rejections.  Keep going we want to read your book.