In Lewis's story the world is gray, and bleak and cold. Winter in our world can be bleak, harsh, cold and dreary. Bareness is everywhere: brown, stubby, empty fields, leafless trees, empty parks devoid of people. Shorter grayer days and longer darker nights send us inside to huddle and isolate. Christmas calls us out.
I wonder if you are like me when you begin writing a new story. Because I’m such a nice person (tongue in cheek here) I want my characters to be nice too. Most of my real-life friends are nice and I tend to think of them when I’m creating a character, so my fictional characters tend to be nice also. See the problem? A story must have conflict. Without conflict there is no story.
Some writers like to create a really mean, ugly character to serve as the story’s villain. Like Crabby Appleton, “rotten to the core.” This was a cartoon character on TV a long time ago. You didn’t need to know why he was so rotten. He just was. You can sometimes find these villains-for-no-apparent-reason in mysteries, but they are not satisfying. I think they give the story a cartoonish feel.
We need to write characters that feel real and we need conflict or there is no story. Therefore, you just have to pull up your socks and develop some characters you don’t like. You need to understand why they act the way they do. You must accept that their actions and opinions are part of who they are. Why are they like this? I try to invent a childhood for my ornery or hateful characters that points to possible reasons why they are like they are. But this seldom happens in real life. We rarely figure out why a person is that way. People are much too complex to be explained by simple cause-and-effect theories.
Think of the recent presidential election. Regardless of which side you were on, did you really understand why others felt so differently from you? Were you tempted to get up on your soapbox and point out how those other folks were just wrong? Could you describe the election from someone else’s point of view? Do you understand that their point of view is really true for them?
As a writer you don’t have the option of using a soapbox. You have to dig deep within yourself and find understanding. You need to be able to write out, on paper, your offensive character’s thoughts on the conflict at hand. You don’t necessarily have to know why he feels as he does, but you do have to know that these are his real feelings. Remember, he sees the world through a different lens. Can you imagine how the world looks to him?
Does your character have any idiosyncrasies that reveal his true nature? She uses lots of air quotes? He overuses use of words like actually? You can use these to enrich the picture and bring the conflict into sharper focus.
A lot of people subscribe to the idea that children are blank slates, and the adult is merely the result of what the world has written on the child’s mind. I’m not sure it’s that simple. But you should think about what has made your ornery character like he is, and it helps to think a bit about his childhood. You don’t have to include it in your story, but you may want to try writing it out just for yourself.
And while I’m thinking about it, give your main character some flaws and foibles as well. Perfect people are boring.
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The wait's almost over. The finish line's in sight! We're in the final stages of coordinating the much-anticipated Mystery by the Sea anthology, Coastal Crimes 2: Death Takes a Vacation. We promise that you'll never look at a vacation the same way after you read the anthology, which has fourteen short stories penned by the talented members of the Mystery by the Sea chapter of Sisters in Crime!
The authors have made their final edits. Our editor, Wildside Press, is pulling everything together. Next step is our cover reveal, which should be in January 2025. After that? Watch for news of our anthology launch party.
During the Thanksgiving holiday season, we often talk
of being grateful or giving thanks for what we have. The word “thanks” is even
in its name; but if you knew the true benefits of being grateful, you’d want to
do it all year long.
In M.J Ryan’s Attitudes of Gratitude: How to Give
and Receive Joy Every Day of Your Life, the author lists fifteen ways
that being grateful is good for us. She calls them “the gifts of gratitude.”
While I won’t write about all fifteen, I will highlight
a few that surprised or enlightened me. Of course, she included the more
obvious results like feeling more joyful, kind and generous.
What I found interesting, however, was the medical
evidence she cites showing that emotions such as gratitude and love strengthen and
enhance our immune systems. When we harbor negative emotions like worry, anger,
and hopelessness, we can reduce the number and slow down the movement of
disease-fighting white cells in our bloodstreams. That’s not good.
However, the findings suggest that when we focus on
being grateful, it reduces those negative emotions and instead releases
endorphins into the blood stream. Endorphins are the body’s natural painkillers,
and they stimulate the blood vessels. This leads to a relaxed heart and reduces
the amount of adrenaline in our bodies which constrict blood vessels and raise
blood pressure. In fact, too much adrenaline in our system can also damage
arteries and even the heart itself.
So, while you may have known that being grateful is
good for your health, you may not have known the specifics.
Ryan says that gratitude also keeps us current because
“. . .when we experience a sense of gratefulness, we are usually contemplating
some present circumstance.” We stop thinking about any past failures or future worries;
thus, Ryan explains, “we are brought up to date with ourselves.” In other words, we can’t harbor opposite
emotions at the same time. We can’t be both happy and unhappy in the same moment.
I suppose we could flip back and forth; but to Ryan’s point, if we’re practicing
and truly focusing on being grateful, we won’t be focused on what’s wrong in
our lives. She recommends we practice being grateful daily. I found all this
information rather insightful.
Gratitude also cures perfectionism, according to Ryan.
As a self-described perfectionist myself, I am particularly excited by this
prospect. First, Ryan quotes Sarah Ban Breathnach who reminds us that after creating
the earth, even God declared it “very good” not “perfect.” I don’t think she’s
suggesting God is less than perfect. I believe her point is that He would not
expect us to be.
Ryan points out that “. . . perfectionism is born of a
sense of inadequacy, of lack,” and that “. . . gratitude counteracts it by tapping
us into the experience of abundance.” Again, if we’re focused on what we’ve
accomplished versus what’s yet to be done, we are less likely to feel
inadequate and better able to resist the urge toward perfectionism.
Another surprising gift of gratitude is that it draws
people to us and helps us keep them in our lives. “When we are grateful,” says Ryan,
“we exude happiness and that makes us magnets that draw people toward us.” It’s
true, I believe. Don’t we all prefer to be around upbeat, happy people? Of
course, we all complain occasionally, but no one likes a constant whiner or an
overly negative person.
And the last one I’ll mention is how gratitude can
release us from the ‘gimmes.” According to Ryan, consumer debt and personal
bankruptcies are “. . . at the highest level in U.S. history.” I didn’t
research the accuracy of that fact, but I do know we are a culture of consumers
and credit card debt. Rarely does a week go by at my house without at least one
Amazon delivery. Ryan’s suggestion is to not buy anything new, except for food,
for two weeks. During that time notice what you liked about that shirt or other
items you already own. Focus on what you have. Ryan claims this gift can help
us get “. . . off the consuming treadmill so many of us are caught on.”
The second half of Ryan’s book, which I did not
discuss, details how to cultivate and create an attitude of gratitude all year,
along with daily practices that will deepen your journey into a more joyous
life.
May you have a wonderful, happy, and more grateful Thanksgiving.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens,
better known to most people by his pen name, Mark Twain, was born on November
30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri, the sixth of seven children. At the age of four,
Clemens and his family moved to the small frontier town of Hannibal, Missouri,
on the banks of the Mississippi. According to documentarian Ken Burns, Twain “. . .
rose from a hardscrabble boyhood in the backwoods of Missouri to become . . .
America’s best-known and best-loved
author.” 
Samuel L. Clemens a/k/a Mark Twain
In his nearly
seventy-five years, Clemens was a man of many titles and occupations,
including: printer’s apprentice, newspaper reporter, riverboat pilot, Confederate
soldier (for two weeks), silver prospector, travel commentator, essayist,
editor, publisher, and lecturer. His most well-known occupation was as an
author. He wrote several books and novels, including:
Innocents Abroad (1869)
Roughing It (1872)
The Gilded Age (1873)
The Adventures of
Tom Sawyer (1876)
The Prince and the
Pauper (1881)
Life on the
Mississippi (1883)
Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn (1884)
A Connecticut
Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889)
Following the
Equator
(1897)
Lapham’s Quarterly
summed up Twain’s life thusly:
Mark
Twain was born on November 30, 1835—two weeks after the perihelion of
Halley’s Comet. “I came in with Halley’s Comet,” Mark Twain commented in 1909.
“It is coming again next year. The Almighty has said, no doubt, ‘Now there are
these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out
together.’” He died on April 21, 1910—one day after the comet had once again
reached its perihelion.
(See, Mark
Twain again follows Halley’s Comet. | Lapham’s Quarterly.)
Find a more detailed discussion of Twain’s life and legacy, see Biography - Mark Twain House. and Mark Twain - Ken Burns.
So, on November 30th,
raise a glass to Samuel Clemens and his writing alter ego, Mark Twain. As
writers and readers, we owe much to him. For, as Ernest Hemingway is reported
to have said, “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain
called Huckleberry Finn. American writing comes from that. There was nothing
before. There has been nothing as good since.”
I like to sit and admire the azaleas while
writing in a notebook. Photo and blog post
(c) copyright by Max Jason Peterson.
Everyone has their favorite writing tools—and learning how we relate to our tools helps us be more productive with them. For some, staring at a blank page is the hardest part of writing; for others, that clean, pristine page is an invitation for words to happen. Are you motivated by the online tools available to you as a writer, or distracted by research rabbit holes and social media (maybe both)? The tools themselves can help us accomplish so much—including providing the focus we need to accomplish our dreams.
You chose the campus.
Either you sought freedom from your family, or your family sought freedom from you. When moving day arrives, the transition from home to communal residence feels permanent.
You meet other newbies and exchange names. Some of your new acquaintances immediately invite you to drink with them in their rooms. Everyone knows the lyrics to the same music.
The residence manager is annoyingly motherly. She calls you by your first name and eyeballs your friends. Having meals available is a perk until you gain the freshman ten. Your body is losing its shape from too many free ice cream sundaes at the welcome bar and not taking the stairs.
Due to the limited square footage of your new living space, you had to leave behind many of your possessions. Many of the residents had to leave their cars behind. There's a shuttle bus, which would be cooler if it didn't advertise where you live.
You almost miss that noisy, code-violating neighbor from the cul de sac now that you're forced to get along with a complainer down the hall who tells management that your door decorations are a fire hazard.
You go to events only because someone left a flier about it near the mailboxes. That's how you ended up learning "How to Make Donuts in an Air Fryer" in the game room on a Saturday afternoon. Card sharks a few feet away encourage you to make more. It's no different than that dateless Saturday night long ago when you learned to make beer-drenched fondue on a hotplate for your roommate's friends while they played Scrabble for money.
The building has an impressive lobby, which no one spends more time in than they absolutely have to. Guests must sign in. There needs to be somewhere to put your family up when they visit, but there isn't.
The whole first year is a yay-boo. Yay, at seventeen, you escaped your kid sister's knock-knock jokes; boo, you can't play with the family dog. Yay, at seventy, you escaped weekly lawn-mowing, but boo, you miss watching your garden come up in the spring.
You get a new nickname. Old friends want to know why your residence friends call you "Miss Sunshine" (because I smile in the morning) or "Lady Godiva" (someone spotted me wearing a skimpy robe one day when I took my trash to the incinerator chute).
The residence is a hotbed of gossip. If you have a special someone, the two of you get a "couple name," and everyone in the building treats you like you're famous. If your sweetheart transfers his affection to someone else on the premises, you must pretend it's no big deal when you hear them called by their "couple" name.
One night, someone who lives below you is alarmed by the sound of your drapes being pulled shut. They think you've had a heart attack and call the night staff to conduct a wellness check. In college, you tap-danced after hours, and the night staff got a call then, too. Nothing you do feels private anymore.
You move out after two years. Neither the management nor your family approve of your decision.
[This post is in memory of author Skip McLamb, 74, who died on October 23, 2024, and who came up with some of these comparisons in the winter of 2022.]
Any kid can tell you where Santa Claus is from—the North Pole. But his historical journey is even longer and more fantastic than his annual,...
