Showing posts with label thoughts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thoughts. Show all posts

Friday, June 12, 2015

Thoughts from a Protagonist

When writing a story, your protagonist must meet people along the way. Sometimes they meet people who become great supporting characters, and others they meet only exist for a few paragraphs. Some of these may be friends. Some may be love interests. Your character may invest themselves wholeheartedly in those few paragraphs. They might fall in love. They might think it will last many chapters. They may be determined to force it to last many chapters. But that's not your plan. As the writer, your plan may be to rip this away from the protag, to bring them pain and heartache and numbness. Sometimes when your character loses people, they will be sad. Sometimes they will cry. They will think they are getting better, and then one night they will read a blog post and realize they aren't. Or something, Maybe they really will be, but in the moment you are not writing much hope into their story, Obviously they will go on, as you don't write cowardly protagonists. Despite this, they might not know what to do tho, or how to think. They might just smile at work and speak in a telephone voice and put on a brave face and soldier on. They might never sleep or they might sleep to much or at the wrong hours.They might lose themselves in the lives of other characters they watch or read or listen to. They might not know how to feel.
When a character reaches such a point, it is up to the writer to save them. Maybe the character knows the writer will save them and anxiously awaits that day, but doesn't know how to stop hiding, how to listen to the writer. Maybe you've taken a hiatus from writing until your protag can get their crap together. Maybe you're just waiting for them to remember they aren't the ones writing the story.




I should be sleeping, but I'm not. I was catching up on some blog posts by my dear friends when I came across one from the middle of January. It was a post by Margaret, titled "Why I Recommend Guitar". Congratulations, Mag. I cried. Anyway, I need to sleep as I'm working a 9 hour shift tomorrow. Good night all.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

The Start of Something

Hmmm. So I started a post about how hard it is to finish things several months ago. I still haven't finished it. How ironic is that? We'll see if I ever finish it at this point.
Anywho. I'm kinda in a writing mood today and so I think I'll write a short story or something. We shall see what it turns into.

Once upon a time.

Hmmm maybe not that.

In a land... no.

When I was born, my mother held me tightly and whispered her final words.

"Thrive, my child."

She didn't name me, she didn't tell those gathered around what to do with me; She just commanded me to thrive. How she expected me to do that as a tiny infant I'll never know, but I will always have that first word with me.

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"THWIVE!" screamed Logan, a little louder than necessary.
"What do you need?" I asked him in an exasperated tone.
"I just want you to pway wiff me," the four-year-old boy whined at me.
"I can't, Log. I'm busy ironing these clothes your mother gave me."
"But Thwiiiiveee. I'm bored!"
"Can't you go play with Penny?" I looked around, searching for a sign of the young girl. "Surely you sister wouldn't mind keeping you while I do the laundry."
"Fine, Thwive. I'ww go find Penny."
"Thank you, Log."

Now you may be wondering what that was about but let me assure you. Scenes like these are nothing strange for me. Almost all of my waking hours are spent doing chores for the Taylors and convincing the children to go play somewhere else. It's just my life. You may also be wondering if I'm ever going to fully introduce myself. I suppose now would be as good a time as any.
Hello, dear reader. You have probably picked up on this by now, but I'm Thrive. I was born about seventeen years ago and promptly orphaned. My father died before my mother could even annouce the joyous news of her pregnancy to him and my mother died soon after I was born. And by soon, I mean soon. Less than two minutes after I was born, my mother left the realm of the living and entered the realm of the dead. I now live with the Illustrious Taylor family, a wealthy family of five. Lord and Lady Taylor took me in when I was five and raised me as their own. When I was sixteen they allowed me to start working for them in order to make some money. Thanks to their kindness I will be able to...


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Insert pause of about two months.

Okay I lost the flow of this story during the break, but if there's any interest I might try to pick it back up. No promises though!

Well. I'm pretty terrible at this blogging thing, I must say. I don't know why. I mean, I can understand why I put off writing essays and research papers: they're terrible! But blogs are supposed to be fun and thought provoking and about whatever happens to be on my mind. Ah well. It's a new year! We shall see what becomes of this blog in 2015. I think my plan is going to be to post at least once per month. Yay for goals!

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Motivation

We do what we do because we want what we want. I think this phrase sums up my motivation problem pretty well. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Sometimes it's the hardest thing to just get up and start laundry, or even to go get a drink to keep myself hydrated. We would call this problem laziness, but I would argue that it's a problem of misplaced priorities.
Many times what I want doesn't line up with what God wants. I want to sleep, I want to watch tv shows, I want to do what I want to do; and while I would never intentionally put it into words (although I am right now), I want what I want more than I want what God wants. This is a really flawed way of thinking that comes from a huge place of pride in my life.
1 Corinthians 10:31 states, "Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." When I place my wants above God's, that shows that I'm more worried about doing things to the glory of Kate than to the glory of God.
We need to be sure to keep the Lord the focus of our entire lives, whether in keeping our house clean, or finishing work we've been given quickly, happily, and well. In fact, when we keep God at the center of our lives, we should be seeking out opportunities to serve others and to give the credit to God.
Try to keep in mind who is The Most High as you go about your daily life, and be encouraged by the fact that this same Most High has designed us to be at our happiest while glorifying Him.
Praise God that serving Him is a joyful thing!