Character Study

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When I set out to write a novel, the first thing I do is create my characters. Protagonists and those who interact with them regularly get serious treatment. Before I write a single word, or even let my imagination move beyond the inciting event or main idea of the story, I create a character profile. I know more about my character than will ever make it onto the page, but, for me, this is a necessary step in knowing how she (or he) will act once she (or he) enters the story.

Take Jim, for example. Angel's husband, Charli's father, Marita's nemesis. Readers of Casting the First Stone and Chasing a Second Chance have been quick to point out how little they like him. That's okay. I don't like him either.

The question is, do his actions make sense? Spend a little time with his mother, Carmella, and I suspect they might. Think about the expectations placed on him, how he got to where he is, what mistakes he's made and what his regrets might be. While the reader shouldn't have to think too deeply about these things, the author should know how those things impact his day-to-day, page-to-page behavior and should write him to be true to those things.

Secondary characters get less attention, and those who appear briefly get even less. While I often develop a little background for these characters (parents, best friends, other regulars), I typically know just enough to populate scenes with them. What I know most about them is how they fit in with my main cast of characters -- how they blend or work as foils.

Then, there are those who pop up, only to disappear within a chapter or two. They get a name, perhaps a job or another distinguishing role, and that's about it. These are the siblings, classmates, and rejected love interests.

Recently, I was thinking about one of those rejected love interests, Gregory Daniels. Originally, he was going to be a more significant love interest, then he had to go and be "beige" on his (offscreen) date with Marita. His fault, not mine. We know that he's an attorney, he's smart (he graduated from Harvard Law School) and he is, in typical walk-on fashion, able to be summed up in a label (metrosexual) that brings an immediate picture to mind. Never mind whether or not it's accurate; he'll be gone in a few pages.

Thinking about Gregory led me to another idea: character interviews -- something along the lines of the "Five Questions from the Porch Swing" feature I did with authors earlier this year. Starting next week, I'll be interviewing my characters here, asking each of them the same few questions, with one final question that's character-specific. Although I have ideas, I haven't finalized my questions yet, so I'm open to suggestions.

So, I'll ask you. What do you want to know? And, whom should I interview first?*

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*The only caveat is that we have to stick to my characters.

I can't claim to know why another author's characters would behave as they do.

Overwhelmed by the Real World

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A week ago, I came home from the Pennwriters Conference with new ideas and new determination. Monday was great; I went on a blog binge, got caught up on posts I owed and even got ahead of schedule, writing posts for later in the week. We'd cleared the prom hurdle, so there were no more dresses to buy, accessories to shop for or boutonnieres to order.

Tuesday, I dug into the graduation announcements that needed to be addressed and mailed, thinking I'd get a sprint in afterward. Said sprint never materialized, and suddenly, it was time to clear the graduation hurdle itself. By Friday, the day I usually begin to rally, my daughter was packing for senior week and heading on her first long-distance trip without adult supervision. Friday afternoon, all I could do was crash.

Emotionally, I'm fine, and no, I'm not in denial. Daughter has duly graduated and arrived at her intended destination. The house is quiet and my husband is working on his own projects, and yet I have had to exile myself to Starbucks to get this blog written. The graduation party, the next hurdle to clear, is this weekend, and although things are well in hand, new ideas and to-do list items follow me around, pecking at me like a flock of haphazard hens. Saturday's sprint, which I thought was the turning point, is merely a memory and structured procrastination reigns supreme.

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I have got to get a grip.

No matter how often they happen -- and how frequently they regulate themselves with little intervention from me -- these temporary setbacks freak me out. If it's a blog-posting day and I haven't posted by a certain time, I become physically incapable of sitting still and a sense of agitation overtakes me. If too many days go by without a sprint or at least sufficient progress on a project, dread looms in the back of my mind. Writing is the only antidote.

This love-hate relationship with the written word is not unique to me; in fact, I know few writers who are not afflicted with it. It's what drives us forward, sends fingers flying across the keyboard, or a pen scritching across paper, desperately seeking solace from the fear of the story lying idle, or the page remaining blank. Proms, graduations, parties, milestones -- all are celebrated and enjoyed within the time frame allotted for them. Transitions into them and out of them are given short shrift, however; we cut ourselves little slack, not counting time as regular people do, or acknowledging that these milestones may need a wider berth in order to account for their impact on our creative energies. Like actors or dancers or vocalists, our minds and bodies are tools of the trade, and it's easy to resent the toll the real world can take on them.

But now I am at Starbucks at my laptop -- in my happy place, where distractions are minimized and writing progress is compromised only by the mental distractions from which I cannot escape. That's okay, though. Soon, I'll be in the world of my characters, and, if I'm lucky, they'll pull me under so deep that only ideas can flood my mind, and, when I surface, I'll be ready to rejoin the real world, satisfied that my work here is done.

For today.

Friday Feature: Cozy Balconies

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When we go to the beach, one of my favorite places is the screened-in porch just off the living room (or, sometimes, depending on the unit, the dining room) of the condo we stay in. Aside from central air conditioning, it's the only requirement I have when we book our accommodations. The condo has an open air balcony as well, but I rarely use that.

These balconies, however? These I could get comfy on.

Then again, I think that's the idea behind a cozy balcony.

Sprint Plus One

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For two years now, I've been trying to sprint with Ramona each day. It's been a fabulous addition to my writing life, with the unexpected benefit of nurturing connections with other writers who are doing the same, and the very much anticipated benefit of squeezing more writing into a full schedule.

My sprints aren't as dedicated as Ramona's -- I'm not a morning person, so the early birds who sprint at 7AM have finished their sprints before I've even started mine. But, I check in late, after I've finished my hour, happy to be part of the group, and motivated by the thread that I know is there even if I haven't yet arrived.

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In addition, I'm more loyal in the summer. During the school year, sprints sometimes get edged out by class planning and teaching, both of which require a portion of the same creative energy that I give to my writing. I'm working on finding my balance, but some days the sprints win and other days, it's the classroom stuff.

After spending the weekend at Pennwriters and being reminded that other writers clock their progress, so to speak, in terms of words, not time, I decided that maybe I needed to update my plan. I love my sprints and the sprint crew, so I'm not ready to jump ship.

Still, there are days that I write, but don't "count" my writing as a sprint because of the way I've defined the sprint itself. Blogs, for example, have never been a part of my sprint time, despite the fact that they make up a substantial chunk of my writing time.

After some deliberation, I've decided to combine my sprints with my previous word count system. I used to keep track of words written each day, but once I started sprinting, word counts fell by the wayside. Over at Organizing by STYLE, I'm constantly talking about celebrating small steps and tracking progress, no matter how small, yet, here at home, I was completely dismissing progress that occurred on an almost daily basis. Silly at best and self-defeating at worst, it constituted a flaw in my plan.

So, as so often happens after Pennwriters weekend, I have a new plan. Sprint? Absolutely. Word count? Yep, that too. After all, when a person writes five blogs a week, she ought to "count" them, right?

It's about time to practice what I preach.

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Go Forth

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After a busy weekend with one foot in the Pennwriters conference and one foot at home (a brief return for photo opps and prom send-off), I feel a bit jumbled this morning. Last week was the hectic lead-up to prom and this week, starting off with deceptive calm, is graduation week. It feels like the start of summer vacation, but important commitments (a final for my daughter, a podcast for me and the impending emotional ceremony on Thursday) say otherwise. Voices from Pennwriters echo in my head, sharing everything from wisdom to criticism to the joyful friendships born of common ground. I want to write about them, but, so far, lack the focus to do so, consumed as I am by all that lies ahead of me this week.

Lying in bed this morning, trying to sort through it all, I opened my email -- delaying the start of the day a bit further -- and found a surprising inspiration in the Morning Offering I subscribe to:

"Go forth and set the world on fire." (St. Ignatius of Loyola)

While I'm certain that St. Ignatius meant it in a spiritual sense, the quote gave me a sense of clarity (not to mention the impetus to actually get out of bed and go forth).

Each of us sets the world on fire in his or her own way. Some days, it's a tiny spark, other days a raging blaze, and occasionally, it's wet matches, but each of us possesses the ability to go forth and set the world ablaze with whatever passion and talent we possess. And on those "wet matches" days, it's important to keep in mind that blazes of glory might still lie ahead, even if we can't even imagine them, let alone see them. And some days, our small sparks are fire starters for the ones we love.

Whatever it means to the rest of us, St. Ignatius's quote is a pretty good way to kick off graduation week. Wishing you a week full of happy sparks.

Friday Feature: So, Busy is Good?

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 I'm retired. Sort of. I joke that I retired, but it didn't take, and my friends shake their heads and laughingly comment that I'm busier now than I was when I worked full time.

Officially worked full time, that is. Now, teaching part time, writing part time, publicizing my books and doing the wife/mom thing, I probably work even more hours than I did then. Although I definitely could stand to improve the work/life balance some days, I'm not complaining. I'm busy doing things I love doing.

As it turns out, being busy might just be a good thing, especially for people my age. Whether it's the myriad learning opportunities, the constant exposure to a variety of new ideas or something else entirely, a Texas study shows a positive correlation between busyness and cognitive functioning for people in their fifties -- at least the people in their fifties who participated in the study.

Most days, this person in her fifties feels more busy than smart, but thanks to that study, I like my odds.

Mom Time

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This weekend, I am attempting to have my cake and eat it, too. It's the annual Pennwriters Conference, which I love, but for which I am woefully unprepared. Sure, I've been mentally planning this trip for weeks, but as far as the actual, physical planning? Not so much.

See, this year, the conference coincides with my daughter's last week of high school ever. I thought I'd have a lovely buffer zone between the end of my semester last week and the conference, which starts Friday, but that has not been how things have worked out.

Monday night was the Academic Awards Ceremony, an event so perfume-laden that it rendered me hacking and sofa-bound for a substantial portion of the afternoon yesterday (thanks so much to all who bathed in their fragrance of choice). This put me behind in my preparation for tonight's critique group meeting, not to mention today's blogs, and before I knew it, one day's list was morphing into the next day's and the leftovers were taking over the schedule.

And the schedule itself was a challenge to begin with. The plan was to spend Friday at the conference, drive home Saturday afternoon to be here in time for prom pictures, drive back Saturday night and finish out the conference on Sunday.

Still the plan. Except, as I mentioned before, the leftovers are chasing me. Graduation announcements. Clothing for said ceremony and for the beach trip that follows. Party prep.

It will all get done. Little by little, step by step and in spite of the best-laid plans. It always does, which is why, by this time tomorrow, I will have switched gears. It'll be later than I'd hoped, but it will happen.

I'm going to Pennwriters.

And when I return, I'll need to wade out of the river of denial and approach the graduation that lies on its shores.

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But meanwhile, I'm going to Pennwriters.

News to Share!

Because today, the first day of summer break, is not going at all according to plan (maybe it's the fall weather??), I'm posting some news today and returning to my regularly scheduled posts on Wednesday.

I'm very excited to be a part of this project, and can only imagine what Lisa and Sarah went through wrangling more than 80 contributors! I had a lot of fun writing my contributions.

If you scroll down below the cover, you can read what Lisa Hendey, one of the book's editors, has to say about this resource, and find links that will allow you to pre-order it.

The Catholic Mom's Prayer Companion For more than fifteen years, the award-winning CatholicMom.com website has been a trusted source for sound, practical, and spiritual guidance. In their new book, Lisa M. Hendey and Sarah A. Reinhard bring together more than eighty moms, dads, and trusted spiritual companions to provide fresh, uplifting meditations for every day of the year.  You can pre-order the book from: Ave Maria Press Amazon Barnes & Noble Your local Catholic bookstore Whether or not you decide to order a copy, I hope you'll check it out! See you Wednesday.

Friday Freebie: The Cost of Not Waiting

Photo: Ashley Schweitzer via Minimography

Last Friday night, my husband and I were discussing ways to reduce our utility bills. Little did we know the answer was much closer at hand than we realized.

The next morning, I came across this piece in the New York Times about just how much the convenience of the immediate power-up we've come to expect from our electronics costs not just us, but the planet.

It was enough to make me go unplug my laptop.

How about you? What will you unplug today?

Baby Steps and Semantics

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On Saturday, I corralled my daughter and made/re-scheduled all of her necessary appointments for the next two weeks (leading up to prom and graduation). With the exception of one appointment where we needed to await a return call, I was able to check those things off my list.

Then, while waiting for laundry, I tackled some piles in the basement, creating a really nice feeling of accomplishment -- at least until I realized it was late afternoon and no writing had taken place.

Monday kicked off my first class-free week (with the exception of a final I'm administering tomorrow) of the summer. Because I didn't have any class preparation to do, I forced myself to do an errand I'd been putting off before making my daily trip to Starbucks. Along the way, I took care of another overdue task -- one that had hung in limbo while I considered possible solutions. That evening, I sorted and cleared some of the paper clutter on the counter in my office. Excited by my progress, I wrote all of these accomplishments on my calendar, hatching a new plan that involved tackling one overdue task each day.

Yesterday? I wrote, had lunch with a friend I hadn't seen in almost a year, graded papers, made dinner, chipped away at the non-creative bits that are part of writing and blog maintenance and took care of things like dinner and laundry. In other words, a normal day, with no bonus tasks.

After I first berated myself, then considered redefining "overdue" (did that lunch "count"?) and finally thought about giving up and chalking Saturday and Monday up to sheer exuberance, I decided I was being silly.

Even as I wrote those tasks on the calendar on Monday, I worried that days would slip by without progress on my new goal. And do you know what that's called?

Life.

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Any progress toward a goal is good news, whether that progress is step-by-step or in fits and starts. Saturday and Monday lit a fire under me, reminding me that small steps can lead to the desire to do more. I know this is true when it comes to saving money and writing and class planning, and I even write about it (often!) when it comes to organization.

Yet, as soon as I backslide, I forget this.

So...onward. Since I'm a writer and I know that finding the word that captures precisely what I want to say is important, I am going to redefine "overdue." Now that I think about it, the phrase "something I've been meaning to do" more accurately describes the lingering tasks I'm thinking of, without begging the question of how long it has to have been on the list to qualify as "overdue." And now that I mention it, I know exactly what that task du jour is going to be today.

How about you? What have you been meaning to do? Is today the day?

Resolution

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Last week, I stuck my neck out in an attempt to once and for all get an answer to a dilemma I'd been wrestling with for some time. I thought I knew how things would go, but I hoped I was wrong.

I wasn't.

Still, I was unprepared for the feelings that washed over me when the answer presented itself. As it turned out, my preparation was insufficient for the hurt and confusion that surfaced and the uncertainty that lingered.

When I was working as a school counselor, and a student sat in front of me, bathed in regret or hurt over a choice he or she had made, I sometimes told them to remember that feeling. I didn't mean it in an unkind way. It's just that sometimes the only way we learn not to do things again is to remember how we felt the last time we did them.

And so I let the pain hang around for a while. I didn't push it away or try to shift blame. I did give in to other distractions, perhaps sooner than I should have, because I had deadlines to meet, and missing them would only create new problems.

I'm not sorry I stuck my neck out, and I'm not angry at the outcome. And now that I have my answer, I can put the matter to rest. I can box up all the unanswered questions that remain and remind myself that answers can't be gotten from those who don't want to give them.

Sounds simple enough, doesn't it? But the reality is that even when we get an answer, it's often not the one we were hoping for.

Letting go is hard. But for me, uncertainty is harder.

Friday Feature: Advice for College Freshman

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Yesterday, I taught my last class of the semester, roughly 24 hours after I received my last request (I hope) for extra credit. After class, I met with a student (a freshman), and we discussed the multitude of life lessons she's learned this year, along with a few necessary academic prep skills she learned the hard way.

Some kids leave high school ready for the adventure that is college. Others show up in the fall needing to learn much more than what's in their textbooks.

All of these kids would benefit from reading this article on things new college students should know. While expectations will vary from one professor to the next, every professor will expect personal responsibility to be on the list of things students bring to class.

Without it, freshman year feels a lot longer and more painful than it ought to.

Casting the First...Vote?

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Today was one of those days where I had no idea what to write about. I get them every so often, but usually stumble upon a topic early in the day.

Today was not that day.

In the midst of running errands late this afternoon -- long after this blog should have been posted -- I got my idea. Stole it, actually, from a radio ad on NPR. It seems that later this week, they'll be interviewing an author (I want to say Richard Russo, but I can't be sure) and one topic of conversation will be who his characters would vote for.

Bingo.

To really make this true to character and avoid further polarizing one of my characters, I'm going to have to flash back a bit, to earlier this week when there were a few more candidates still pursuing the nomination.

With John Kasich, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump as Republican contenders and Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton as Democratic contenders, here's who I think my characters would vote for:

• Marita would vote for....Hillary. Definitely. 
• Angel would vote for....John Kasich. She'd definitely vote Republican, but she doesn't trust Ted Cruz. And she thinks Donald Trump is a bully. 
• Jim would vote for....Trump. In fact, there's a part of Jim that wants to be Trump.
• Bets would vote for...Hillary. She thinks Bernie Sanders is cute, but she likes Hillary's chutzpah.
• Lukas would vote for...Bernie Sanders. And not just because his youth group kids talked him into it.
• Gina would vote for...Hillary. Or, she'd mean to, but she'd probably have to work late and forget to vote. 
• Charli, if she were old enough, would vote for....Bernie Sanders. She's not so sure about Hillary and the e-mails and she thinks Bernie's kinda cute.

What do you think? Whom do you think my characters would vote for?

You Get What you Pay For

When my husband picks up a drink for me, it sometimes
comes with little notes from the baristas who made it.

Last week, I was sitting at my favorite Starbucks -- the one where I know all the baristas except the newest hire -- and an off-duty barista sat down at the table beside mine. She was working on an assignment for school -- an interview -- and asked if I'd mind being one of her interviewees. Since the topic was Starbucks' Frappucino Happy Hour, I figured I could speak reasonably intelligently, so I agreed.

Somehow -- I don't remember whether it was through a direct question she asked, or the conversation we had as a result -- we came back to the value for the price question. This is the one that stumps me whenever I'm asked about it in a customer satisfaction survey and whenever I consider the splurge that is my daily Starbucks habit. No matter how frugal I am in other aspects of my life, I still plunk down more than $4 a day at my local Starbucks. I refuse to do the math in any serious fashion because even without crunching the numbers, I realize there are so many things I could buy if I simply quit my Starbucks habit.

And yet I don't. I love my Starbucks (the drink), my Starbucks (the place) and my Starbucks baristas. It's one of my few indulgences.

But it was only when I went off-topic and told this young woman (as I tell everyone) how much I like Starbucks' customer service model that it began to dawn on me. Something I should have figured out a long time ago.

It's all tied to the price of the drink.

Enthusiasm and encouragement are
never in short supply :-)

Sure, it costs nothing to be nice, and my Starbucks baristas have that in spades. But Starbucks takes care of its employees (or "partners," as the company calls them). They get health insurance, company stock and educational opportunities, along with the typical food service product freebies that help to offset the disadvantages of a job where you work as hard as a barista does. And they earn more than minimum wage.

That's why my daily drink costs more than $4.

When I plunk down that chunk of change -- or, more accurately, use the bar code on my phone -- I'm helping to improve the life of the person behind the counter. I'm contributing to the fact that she has health insurance for her family, that he can go to college, that she can advance in the company that hired her and invests in her training.

And I like that idea. After all, considering how well they treat me, it seems only fair to return the favor. And it seems really sad that all companies don't want to invest in the very people who are creating their success.

So, the next time I fill out one of those surveys, I'll have to think a bit more about my value for the price rating. Sure, I'd like it if my daily drink cost less.

But would I really like it if my barista friends suffered because of it?