Month: May 2025

Make My Day

May 14, 2025 / / 0 Comments

It seems the media  headlines are nothing but bad news these days. The constant stream of worry and stress and fear weighs on my spirit. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised when I had to spend a day on foot in my home town. It began when a teenager paused and held a door for me. He could easily have been on his way without that little gesture of kindness. I was at least six feet away.

I did a little shopping, so had my hands full when I approached another door. A mature woman jumped up and opened it for me. She even offered me a spot at her table, but I wasn’t staying. Still, it was nice to be asked.

Then I went to an outside table with my cup of coffee and a workman leapt forward to pull out a chair for me. 

All of these small courtesies were performed with a big smile, a cheery wave and a “no problem” reply to my thanks. These people turned what started out as a grumpy day (I had to take my car to the garage. Hence the “on foot” bit) into a lovely day. I enjoyed my book and my coffee so much more with a bouyed up frame of mind.

I had two takeaways from my day. The first was on a personal level — smile every chance I get! A smile, a kind word, a cheery wave cost the giver nothing and work wonders on the receiver. We seem to live in a soup of anger and distrust and disdain. Even a tiny bit of good can make a difference.

My second reaction was as an author. How could I use this bit of serendipity to enhance my writing? I’ve been mulling over a “nice” character in my WIP and looking for ways to make her more interesting.  So, if she’s the one holding the door, she’ll bring cheer to others but will remain as a “nice” but boring character. If I make her the one sneering in every utterance, I make her more of a villain than a heroine. 

It is hard to make pleasant characters interesting. Perhaps that is why I have more fun with secondary roles. I’m not that invested in the sidekick so I can make him silly or eccentric or stupid or annoying . . . there are no limits. But for my main character, the hero or heroine, I want the reader to like them, to want to get to know them, to want to spend time in their company. As a  result, the protagonist in my work is often afflicted with “niceness,” and readers and editors quickly dismiss the story.

So, back to my day. The workman with the big smile spoke a language I didn’t know. If I put my “nice” heroine in that situation would she be offended by the “foreigner?” That would be a not-nice reaction but maybe she could recognize her own prejudice in the encounter. This might set her down a path of discovery. That might lead to personal growth, a character arc. Maybe my “nice” heroine has some not-so-nice secrets that make her more interesting to the reader.

Maybe she has been trained to be nice but is sick and tired of being the cheerful one in every relationship. Hmm.

I’m still happy I encountered “nice” people on my day out, and I hope my heroine is the type of person who makes the reader feel happy. I just have to work on that “nice” thing.

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4 Ways to Put the Fun in Function

May 7, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Oh dear! I’ve been very remiss in keeping my blog posts up-to-date! There are any number of excuses — Easter, election, gardening, book club, writers’ group — no shortages of excuses, the question is: are they valid?

Whether you are a writer, a swimmer, a chess-player or a biochemist, there are always excuses to avoid the work. When faced with a choice between something fun and important, like family for instance, or demanding and important, human nature being what it is, “fun” often wins out. It isn’t that we don’t want to do the work — after all we chose to write, or swim, or . . . but, the path of least resistance is so attractive. 

Now that I’ve confessed my failings and made my excuses, how do I get back on track? It seems to me that the answer lies in the first question. I’ll chose what is fun. Therefore, I must look for ways to make function (act, perform, work), fun.

Here are some suggestions:

  1. Eavesdrop.  I don’t mean nasty, sneaky eavesdropping, the kind that looks for gossip or dirt. I mean the accidental eavesdropping that occurs while sitting in a coffee shop, or sunning on a park bench, or waiting for the movie to start at a cinema.  Snippets of other people’s conversations can spark all kinds of scenarios in a writer’s mind. An added benefit is hearing a fresh turn of phrase, or the latest slang.               
  2.  Troll for prompts.  Sometimes we just get stuck on “troll” mode and can’t put down that screen. Happily, the internet abounds with sites for writers prompts. Instead of doom-scrolling, and sending yourself into despair, check out some writer’s sites. Here is a great one from Writer’s Digest. Or finish this sentence that I just made up — “My superpower is ___________ and I’ll use it to ________.”                                                                                             
  3. Alternative Endings. If you haven’t the inclination to create new work today, think of a book where you didn’t like the ending. Write your own version. Have fun with it. Wreck vengence on unlikable characters from the original. Spread love on the ugle step-sister. Give the prom queen pimples.  I think many, many writers have had a go at Gone with the Wind.  If Rhett came back, what would happen?                                                                                   
  4. Do a word puzzle. All writers like words, so it’s fun to play a word game. Once you solve the puzzle, try writing a sentence or a paragraph that uses the words in the puzzle. Movie, world, monkey and budget, were the words used in today’s Jumble puzzle. This one is almost too easy. “The low-budget movie featuring the world of monkeys did not win any awards.” Wasn’t that fun?

 

Now, it is time for me to take my own advice. Tomorrow I have a chance for eavesdropping. Right now, I’ll check out some of those prompts. 

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