Archive for June, 2015

noun: character; plural noun: characters

As I writer I would say both these definitions are intertwined. That’s why we hear that a movie or book is “character driven” versus “action driven.” An action driven drama still has characters. The label is supposed to point out that the action of the piece is emphasized more than the mental and moral distinctions of the individuals (who are still characters, per definition number 2. Confused yet?)

But I digress. This post isn’t really about the use of characters in writing. I categorized it under “neurotic griping” for a reason. This post is my commentary on the way our culture determines character. At the moment I’m not impressed.

This started with a post from a friend on Facebook, lamenting about how disappointed he was with the lack of charity presented by truly wealthy people, such as celebrities and athletes who get free perks and gifts all the time. The problem with this premise is the assumption that a person’s character is intertwined with their occupation. As the definition above points out rather efficiently, it doesn’t.

And there in lies our societal problem. We are placing value on a person based on their occupation rather than their character. One has nothing to do with the other. You can have a factory worker who volunteers at the local hospital, and a renowned heart surgeon who beats on his/her kids. You can have a school teacher that deals drugs and a movie actor that has been faithful to his/her spouse for decades. You can have an ex-con that raises vegetables for his/her community’s food shelf and a minister that embezzles money from his/her parish. I think you get it.

In my opinion we need to return to the true definition of character and hone our judgements accordingly. These over-reaching, generalizations of “poor people entitled – rich people successful” or “rich people spoiled – poor people noble”  needs to go away because they are simply wrong. Human beings should be judged on their actions, on their treatment of others, not on their title or their income. period.

The process of creating a story can take many forms depending on the proclivities of its creator. Some writers have the discipline of writing down to a science in their consistency. They have a space and time that remains constant and there they barricade themselves in to be alone with their alternate universes. How blissfully convenient that must be.

I don’t create that way because, simply put, I am a consistently inconsistent person. I have a space but it is not just for writing. It is also covered in bills, paycheck stubs, junk mail that should be relegated to somewhere else, exercise ideas and plans that will probably never see fruition, extra clothing should said space become too cold, various doohickies,  half read books, and at least one cat. My schedule changes day to day, some days I work 12 hours at a different job, some days only 7 hours, and I have a couple of days off. So far, the discipline that I see in other authors that I admire simply eludes me.

So my writing inevitably occurs in fits and starts. My characters do not wait patiently in the wings for their scheduled entrance. They pop into my head any damn time they please, and I try, sometimes in vain, to remember what ever nugget they left behind and write it down. The pulling over in the car and writing it down on pieces of leftover receipts from my purse rarely works. For some reason, as useless receipts, they are always easy to find, but as valuable tidbits of writing, they somehow get lost. Go figure.

With every new writing assignment, every writer, no matter how seasoned, copes with the deep seeded insecurity that they won’t finish. That they will finally be found out as a fraud, and they just don’t have it in them to create one more sentence. All they have is the faith in the almighty process.

That is also where my faith lies. The reminder that I have done this before, and that I will do it again, hopefully better than the last because part of the process is learning what works, what doesn’t, learning to let go, believing in the depth of your characters and the resonances of their stories with readers. I will doggedly write on, word by word, line by line, scene by scene, chapter by chapter. You get the point. Now if I could just learn to leave a pocket in my purse exclusively for those darn receipts.