Are you TO Attached to your Character’s?

Hi Fellow Bloggers,
I follow like this page on FB called The Writer’s Circle. The other day I saw this picture and it resonated with me so well. I am totally this person. My characters are real people to me. I talk about them like I do my other friends. When you write a novel you spend a lot of time with your characters. You know them like you know yourself (if they open up to you. Some are private and only share the barest of details.) You have witness my forums with my characters. As writers we much not only talk to our characters like we would each other we must respond to them. Several books later I catch myself writing about one character and comparing their behavior to another. I think about my characters in Forbidden more than I think about close friends some time. I hope I am not the only one that does these things.
It’s just that the characters become such a strong part of you. I remember when I first meet Ivy. She was shy, quiet and hated the spotlight. She prefers to let Anna have it. That didn’t mean she didn’t want a bit of attention every now and then. After weeks, months, and years with her I know that she hides a lion underneath her skin. There is something might and powerful about her. She is strong of will. The best part is I she didn’t know it either. We found out together. Three books later I feel like Ivy is one of my good friends. There’s been a time or two when I’ve thought to myself Ivy would probably love this.
As a writer we have a lot of people floating around in our heads. They speak to us. Tell us there stories. That was an opening for my admittance to a physic ward. Anyway my love for each of my characters continues even after they stop speaking to me. Or there voice gets quitter in my head so that I can listen to someone else’s. I have been writing for one character and written lines that sound like another. In my last book series Faith’s Awakening I did that. I would write dialogue in Ivy’s personality. Faith and Ivy are very different on the surface. One is shy/reserved and the other is fierce and speaks her mind. Dig a bit deeper and you can see similarities. They both desire to help those around them though at times they allow themselves to get in there way. Even with these things in common their personalities are different enough where if Ivy said something chances are Faith would never say that. So when I found myself writing dialogue that coddled people instead of told them the truth straight up I had to retrace my steps. I needed to set my book aside and spend time with Ivy so that she could express herself without interfering with Faith’s story. Then when she was done I went back to Faith.
I said all this to say… no matter how much time passes you will always be connected to your characters. They linger around, and you think about them. Maybe I’m just too attached to my characters. Perhaps I have some weird disorder that I need to get checked. Either way I am happy to be different.

Childhood dreams

Hi Fellow Bloggers,
It’s been a while since I posted on here. A lot has happened. I have a new niece. She is the most precious little girl and I am totally in love with her. Her name is Ruth leeAnne Ward, but I call her Rue. I feel like I’m the one who had the baby since I talk about her to anyone that will listen. I have never fallen in love with someone at first sight, but she definitely stole my heart. She’s only a month and two weeks and I already want to give her the world. I will always do what I can to protect and love her. If this is what being a mom feels like I look forward to it.
Besides babysitting my beautiful niece I have been working on a new book. It’s called Warrior of Light. This is a new avenue of writing for me. The characters are of a different culture and ethnicity. So I have had to do a lot of research on that. I am also doing some pretty interesting things in the novel. For instance I had to create my own creation story. That was really fun. I’ve had to do that before for one of my Humanities classes. I think this is my most organized book to date. This is going to be my first stand-alone book. So I am having to manage getting everything I want said in one novel. That’s pretty fun.
On another fun note I have been having children books floating around in my head. I have been telling them to my niece Ruth and she doesn’t seem to complain. Almost as long as I have been writing I have wanted to do children books. That was one of the things that I loved to read as a kid and even now. It’s something so authentic (refreshing might be the better word) about them. I love the simplicity and poetic aspect of them. Some of those same children stories made me want to right and gave me courage/strength growing up.
So I was just reading a previous prof new post and it inspired me to write something. It got me thinking about dreams. He recently published a book. His name is Nathan Holic and the novella, (I’ll post a link in case you want to check out the book. I’ve mentioned him before on here. I think he’s awesome and an amazing prof.
The reason why his post inspired me is because his dream of publishing is reality now. Growing up in foster care is hard and if you don’t have some type of dream to hold onto chances are you are going to live a miserable life. It’s a depressing circle of let downs and untruths. My dreams have changed a lot since I was little. At first I wanted to be a singer. The thing is I realized that I have horrible stage fright which makes my voice quiver. I just don’t do crowds very well. Then I wanted to be a pediatrician. I use to go to the hospital a lot when I was younger because one of my foster parents use to look after a person that had to get dialysis twice a week. I would hang out in the children’s ward with them and listen to their stories or watch soap operas. Even as a kid I had a huge heart towards hurting people. I always wanted to be able to comfort the sick kids. Then I realized that hospitals deal with a lot of death and I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle that. A few years later I moved into a house with my eldest sister. She wrote poetry and keep a lot of poetry books. I use to read her poems and all the books she had. The key thing that the poems had in common was a since of hope they gave. I loved that feeling I had after reading and I wanted to be able to share that with other people. I tried my hand at it and realized that I enjoyed writing. Thus my dream was born. That was almost fifteen years ago. Now when you ask me what my dreams are I can tell you hands down without hesitation. They are who I am. I couldn’t detach myself from them if I wanted to.
So now I plan to push myself as I am sure all successful people do. I don’t plan to stop until I accomplish my dreams. I believe that things are only impossible if you allow them to be. It might be another fifteen years down the road, but they will happen. I have too much faith in myself and God to give up. I hope this post gives you the kick you need to keep grinding towards your goal. There is no reason to give up. There never will be, because if someone else did it then so can you. End of story. That’s all for now. See you on the internet ❤