Day 16: Chili, Cornbread, and Characters (1/21/22)

 Note: My iPad and iPhone have refused to sync for the past three days, so blog entries have gotten clogged up. But I have discovered WiFi in the campsite bathrooms (not sure of the logic in that) so am publishing four today. 

Two victories today: swimming at the Y in Corpus Christi this morning (any exercise at my age is a victory), and making amazing (if I say so myself) cornbread in the air fryer this afternoon. Warm, crumbly, moist, crunchy on the bottom and crisped on the top, browned to perfection—a perfect receptacle for melting butter and a drizzle of honey. Yes, the cornbread was a victory. Though it probably undid the benefits of the exercise.

 

Going into Corpus Christi and baking and feeding/walking the dogs took up much of the day, but I also got out for a walk. Wandering down to the lovely CCC pavilion, 






I found a stone seat and wrote down some notes for a new story, then listened to a recording of a writing seminar on creating villains. 



 

Quirky characters can add spice to an otherwise humdrum story. Or to a great story. It’s fun to move a character—especially a villain—from being a predictable stereotype to being someone with depth, nuance, and the element of surprise. This is not always easy to do.

 

Phil is a quick decision maker. He tends to see a person’s actions, take them at face value, and make a snap judgment about him or her. Someone who speeds, who cuts us off in traffic, who makes a scene in the grocery checkout lane, even who simply looks grumpy or offers a curt remark—all this brings a quick response from my husband. Often, of course, his judgment is spot on. 

 

But being a writer, I tend to make up stories about why the person may have done that. His son is in the hospital, or she is desperately late picking up her kids from school, or his rheumatoid arthritis is acting up, or she was laid off this morning with no other job opportunities in sight. As a novel writer, I have come to understand that each character will have good reasons for the illogical or inappropriate way in which he or she is acting, and it’s my job to find those reasons and (eventually) let the reader in on it. This is called backstory.

 

If you’d like to play at being a writer, try giving the next person who irritates you a backstory to explain why he or she is acting that way. It not only makes for good literature, but also creates empathy and compassion, adding a drop of mercy and kindness in a world that sees too little.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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