I have come up with quite a list of character ideas for the story, but not feeling overly compelled to go with any of them. Some the characters I was tolling with are....a mother's conflict with the classic to work or stay home....a child's conflict with his 'safety blanket'....a couple feeling the pressures of choosing not to have children....a girl and her free spirit - how to keep it alive.....and a psychic's struggle in finding balance between using her abilities and fitting in to society.
A few of them are characters that I would enjoy writing about - the boy and his 'safety blanket', the free spirited young girl, and the psychic. So, at this point I feel that I would probably have most success in choosing the psychic, and have sketched a very loose outline. Some of the plot and character points could come from those of my older sister. She is very intuitive, and has struggled for most of her life in finding the balance with her God given abilities, how to use them to help those in need, and how to 'fit in' and weave her way through relationships.
The character's personality will be rather common, that is one that lives a normal, average life. But the obvious difference between her average, and the mass populations' average, is her ability to communicate with the dead. She receives visits from the dead, quite often with messages that they desire to pass on to those they love. She senses emotional conflicts and 'sees' things about people by simply being in the same room with them.
So, the conflict will be in what to do with her abilities, how to share what she knows without scaring people away, and how to function within relationships.
Seems pretty weak at this point, but am hoping that it evolves as I move forward, and that perhaps drawing off of my sisters' experiences will help me to give the story and character more substance. Let's hope.
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One of your ideas stuck out to me - the child with the security blanket. It seems like it would be very difficult to write from a child of that age's perspective. Out of curiousity, how would you do that? Would it be by observation? (Just trying to see how you would, in hopes it will help me grow and be able to do that with characters too).
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about a child who has outgrown the 'typical age' for a security blanket...maybe school age - 7 or 8. It doesn't feel challenging to me to write from the child's perspective, in fact that was partly why it hit my short list.
ReplyDeleteAnother idea that I think will make my one of two chracters we work this week is a man in his 5os or 60s who is stricken with a sudden illness and faces the challenge of letting go - literraly, allowing himself to let go of the physical world, his family, his regrets and all that he thought mattered. Your thoughts?
Love Love Love, the psychic idea. I think this might be your strongest and most interesting story line. It will be good to have some “real” examples to draw from as well. While I don’t necessarily believe wholeheartedly in the “psychic” thingy, I respect and appreciate those that do. Who am I to say what is or isn’t? I can imagine the struggle your sister and your character might have. I don’t think most people are as open minded and supportive as I am. If they have strong beliefs against this type of thing, they can be quite judgmental I would think. That’s a pet peeve of mine, judgmental people. I sometimes need to remind myself to be careful and not become judgmental of the judgers! They usually behave that way because of ignorance, fear, or arrogance, I think. It’s rarely due to plain meanness or an intention to
ReplyDeletehurt.
As for the blankie idea, my daughter just put her shredded threadbare and over repaired yellow, (ok, brownish now) blankie in her basement when she got home from the hospital with her new baby! Her husband brought it up to her at the hospital, but she was finally OK with letting it go when she got home. Yes, she took in on their honeymoon! She always used it as a pillow.
Interestingly though, I notice that the baby now has a soft yellow blankie from Grandma that she has with her all the time. Of course this is because her mommy uses it all the time. The baby just turned 4 weeks old! Some habits are just hard to kick. It makes me smile to see her sharing her obsession with her daughter. By the way, I never had one.