Tuesday, September 14, 2010. . . Tis the season of getting to know the characters.
It’s a plowing sort of work. A hundred acres, planted row by row by row. Imagined together, the overview, outline, theme, title, and character sketches are huge. I try to get my arms around it all. It’s too much. I have to slow it down, plant one seed at a time, one name, one plot line, one setting, one crisis, one thread. And yet I have to see the field alive and full of corn stalks.
Surprises surprised me: I adore the teenage girl. She’s very “out there” but her heart shows. I am in love with the husband/stepdad. Tender, thoughtful, committed, real, insightful, giving. A Jesus figure? The wife/mother is a bundle of hurts and I ache for her and admire her and can’t wait to put her in print.
I listen for their voices. I look for paradox and motives and wounds and mystery. I worry about jumping all over the board but it’s always like this. I need a general structure in the beginning – even though most of it will change before I type “The End.” I need details as well – what is the girl’s best friend’s name? – so later they will not bog me down.
DETAILS . . . Walk on the pier. Email from a high school reader in Australia, talk with my mom, massage, bike ride with My Guy after he pumps air into my flat tires, Sue Thomas FBEye rerun, and a quote from Richard Rohr:
“Somewhere each day we have to fall in love, with someone, something, some moment, event, phrase, word, or sight. Somehow each day we must allow the softening of the heart.”
Amen.
This is a really great quote from Rohr - it really rings true to me.
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