Hooray! Hooray! I’m off today. Slept in, too, until six forty-five am. Something I don’t normally do. Most times, I ‘m like the Ever Ready Bunny. I keep going and going. The constant character babble never shuts up and my dreams are vividly wild. Zombies. And, I don’t even read or write about them. But, I did promise Stacey Graham I’d read her book “Hungry for Your Love”, a zombie romance, and write a review on it.
Okay. Enough of that. The point of this blog has nothing to do with the above paragraph.
Yesterday, I was thinking…oh-oh…Shelly’s thinking. And thinking deep, too. Showers do that to me, get me thinking in a philosophical and spiritual way.
In “Secondhand Shoes”, Lila is surrounded by three older women. Her mother, her mother-in-law, and her Gram.
Lila’s mother is controlling and down right abusive, concerned with how the outside world perceives her. She’s also what church people call a fence sitter. Holidays and Sundays are only for God in her world.Cussing isn’t beneath her and anyone that believes anything outside her realm is crazy. In her world, cosmic anything doesn’t exist.
Her mother-in-law appears over zealous in her beliefs. At least, that’s what she wants everyone to believe. She prays in public and speaks in tongues. Blurts out “Praise the Lord” and “Sweet Jesus”. But, behind all those mutterings lies something dark and sinister. She’s not the devout Christian lady she leads everyone to believe. She and her son, Max, have a secret family business and wants to welcome Lila into it or else.
On the other hand, there’s her Gram. She’s herself and doesn’t care what anyone thinks, dead or alive. In her living life, she practiced tea leaf reading, Tarot, and believed in God. Throughout the novel, she tells Lila to pay attention to her dreams, her own intuition, and to pray often.
Even though Gram is a ghost, she’s solid enough for Lila to draw strength and insight from throughout her seven day nightmare-journey to save and find herself.
And in writing “Secondhand Shoes”, my hope is for every young woman to think for themselves and to follow their hearts. Today, I see so many that don’t, including some of my own daughters.
So, I pose this question. When you create your characters, what do wish your readers to draw from them?
Happy reading, blogging, and writing!!!
Shelly
Cool that you draw from life. Very good, Shelley!
ReplyDeleteI too like to draw from life. I don't like cardboard characters. I don't like to let you know what the heck I'm thinking while I write. This morning another idea hit me. This one will be one of those shockers, and pulls the emotions of the readers another way. I love secrets, family secrets can be even more darker than one might see from the outside.
What I try to do is create a strong protag, someone you can root for, and around her are slimballs. She has to slug through them, survive it and come out a winner.
Have a wonderfully creative day of writing, my friend!
I hope people that read my works can find something they can use in thier everyday life.
ReplyDeleteSleeping until six forty five isn't sleeping in. It's getting up way too early!
ReplyDeleteI'd hope that readers get three dimensional characters out of me... or it's back to the drawing board!
Three dimensional horniness...:), William.
ReplyDeleteMy heroine is totally in trouble and lost for 70,000 words and then SHAZAAM- watch out!
ReplyDeleteEve:
ReplyDeleteIs your book published yet?
Fence sitters? I've always called those folks Chreasters...ya'know! Christmas+Easter?
ReplyDeleteNo, I'm just now going to query- and I'm writing a synopsis.
ReplyDeleteBecky:
ReplyDeleteI love that...that's great!!! Chreasters.
Eve:
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the query and synopsis. Those two rattled my nerves. It's easier to write the novel than to summarize it into a small box but it has to be done.