Writing the Wrongs

Jun30

  

Benjamin Franklin once said;  Nothing is certain in this life, except for death and taxes. As accurate (and witty) as that claim may be, it is in my view a partial, incomplete statement that paints only a piece of the picture, allowing for blank space that could be filled in with a  broader, more expanded complete definition to include other missing certainties we should expect to encounter in this life. Embellishing on Mr. Franklin’s wise assessment, I would reclaim the certainties in this life to include: death, taxes and wrongs in general. Whether thrust upon us by fate and no fault of our own, or forged by our own hands and creation, these hardships, adversities and wrongs  are as certain as the rising sun, same as the regrets, guilt or pain that will tag along with them.  

Although wrongs in life are unavoidable, and even necessary for growth and strengthening,  they do not need to undermine our story outline, or derail us from our purpose or quest to achieve publication, or fulfillment and happiness.  Sure, it might take effort, energy and courage to overcome each one that we encounter- for some even too difficult to attempt, often triggering individuals to complain, whine, cry victim or give up altogether.  But, alternatively, when resignation of or escape from the wrongs  is not feasible, possible or advisable, and that is almost always the case, we might instead dig in to proactively rewrite the wrongs  into something right, something  useful for a future more positive chapter, like turning lemons to lemonade as American Writer and Philosopher Elbert Hubbard would say, or like adjusting our sails when the storm that hits is out of our control.

To Write the Wrongs is about more than simply revising the flawed scenes of our story to add interest, thrill, thought- provoking material or excitement;  it is also about taking an extra step to  transform the wrongs into something right, something better, something that WILL work- whether in fiction or in real life.  Writing the Wrongs means to reevaluate, repurpose and recast the unfair, unexpected,  wrong things that happen TO us, as well as to reshape and correct the wrongs we create for ourselves.

In J.D. Mathes’s Writers Digest Writing through the Troubles ,  Mathes describes the process as being “about coming to terms and making sense of your life.”  He says “it allows us to tell our story and make the suffering transcendent.”  For him, writing through his troubles sprouted from an experience he had when he was younger after he had been arrested- a wrong which not only negatively impacted his  life, but also  his mother’s life and the life of other collateral’s who had gotten swept up in his troubles.  Published in the Massachusetts Review, his essay was titled Mamma Tried,  told from the point of view of  the person he cared about most who was devastated the most. Through this writing process, he worked to transform his experience into a “healing narrative”.   In other words, he worked to write the wrongs in a way that could potentially heal, inspire and help others in their troubles.

Similarly, Writers Digest contributor, Sally McQuillen wrote in her May 2025 article, Why I wrote and published my Memoir, about losing a child.  Without doubt,that had to be deeply painful to craft, and yet McQuillen stuck with it for seven years, writing through her grief and pain while parenting and working full-time.  Determined to write (right) her wrongs, she turned her pain into something healing and useful; “… writing it has given me strength in my vulnerability in hopes that the tears in my words might help anyone hurting feel less alone.”  Explaining that her reason for writing about the tragedy was her son, and in that love for and memory of him she needed to craft meaning of her “seismic loss and survive it”- while simultaneously sharing it with others who might feel lost and alone in their own painful troubles. It was her way of Writing the Wrongs.

In the 10-8-25 Writers Digest article The Power of Hopeful Fiction in Difficult Times, author Shanna Hatfield describes stories as lifelines.  Her idea of turning lemons to lemonade, or to write the wrongs is to craft “hopeful fiction to remind us of better possibilities, of courage tucked away, waiting to blossom.” She says it “offers the assurance that beauty can emerge from hardship.  Fiction infused with hope doesn’t blithely skip around reality. It faces it head on, and then provides the steps for readers to climb above it. For writers, finding the balance between authenticity and optimism can be challenging, but getting it right feels like a cherished gift.”

To more clearly unpack this idea, Hatfield points to the letters she received from her grateful readers that highlight the purpose of writing hopeful fiction, in which they discuss their own hardships. These wrongs that happen to them  or are a result of their own creation, often include wrongs like job loss, unexpected medical diagnoses, financial struggles, relationship loss, death, PSTD, depression, thoughts of suicide  and other difficulties, injustices and unfairness to which we can all relate.  In response to the readers’ heartfelt admissions, she advises, when writing your story,  to “give your characters trying situations and problems to overcome, but thread that needle with hope.  Add hope one small layer at a time, through simple gestures or acts of kindness we often overlook or miss”. These could include a neighbor who provides a meal, a friend who offers a ride to a doctor appointment, a stranger’s warm smile, a service worker who sympathizes, or a loved one who does his or her best to ease your fear, worries, pain or dismay.

I know for me personally, this year threw more wrongs at me than I had experienced in years,  since my divorce and my father’s death.  They came at me so hard and so unexpectedly that I had no time  or preparation to avoid or escape them. Some came through no fault of my own, and others came as a consequence of bad decisions I made in the past, but all of them caused me to stumble, freeze, or shut down for at least a moment.  

For me, writing the wrongs was about turning more steadfastly to the word of God, increased worship and prayer, deepening my faith, changing habits, and making or encouraging positive changes for me, my family and my life.  I was lucky to have those neighbors, friends, service workers and family in my life to help me “write the wrongs” that happened TO me and BY me.  My story transformed from one of lost hope, despair, anger, confusion and fear, to one of new found hope and a renewed enthusiasm to make things better in my life and in the lives of those who had become caught up in my “lemon” storm with me. 

Writing hopeful fiction, or converting lemons or writing the wrongs, provides a safe place for readers to experience a broad scope of emotions, to work through confusing thoughts and to develop a sound sense of hope and optimism for the future. Shanna Hatfield suggests to “create a foundation of hope in truth, to add vulnerability (moments of weakness or anguish), craft possibility (for healing, forgiveness or newfound strength) and remember the reader (gift her with encouragement, laughter and reassurance).  She ends her advice with this;  “Fiction can’t erase or cure the world’s (or your own) struggles, but it can encourage us to face them with hearts full of love, faith and hope.”

In the January 2025 Finding Strength in Rejection: Turning Setbacks into Success as a Writer, Deanna Martinez-Bey provides another way to see it and write it;  “Rejection can sting, but it doesn’t have to stop you.”  While her article focuses on the writing process practiced by writers, her suggestions apply to any of life’s setbacks.  She says “Rejection doesn’t mean your work isn’t good- it often means it wasn’t the right fit at the right time.”  Isn’t that true of some of the hardships we all face as human beings living in our own life story, while we are here on this temporary pit-stop called life.  “Rejection”, Martinez-Bey says “ is part of the process … we must allow the negative to propel us into positivity”.   In other words, write with determination, clarity, courage and purpose, -make lemonade from lemons to quench thirsts and  “write the wrongs” that will turn them right. 

When I think back to this year’s events that derailed me and my family from the story outline I had envisioned for us,  I recall how difficult it was for me to allow the negative to push me forward into the positive at that time.  It was not easy to do but it ended up being possible and doable.  I could have let those wrongs define my present, threaten my future, and betray my cherished past ,  by accepting the wrongs at face value,resigning myself to their negative impact on my story, and just letting them be.   But, instead I picked them up off the ground where they fell after they had toppled me over, and I began rewriting them. 

 I am still writing and re-writing them.

In the January 2026 Writers Digest article, Character Arcs: Turning Inner Struggles Into Story Power, Sarah Branson says “Even the wildest plot falls flat if the main character stands still, untouched by the storm swirling around her.” The plot we write, or that we live, is going to come with its unexpected twists and turns, some for the best and many for the worst, but it is how we face them and move forward that makes our stories meaningful and impactful -for our audience, for ourselves and for others.

“At the heart of every story, “ Branson adds, “ a character struggles with what they believe about themselves and the world. The plot draws us in, but the character arc (how the character responds and changes)  is what sustains our interest as readers.  When you build from the inside out, letting the character’s misbelief about herself or her circumstance (and the wrongs)  shape every beat, the story does more than move.  It lingers in the quiet after the last page.  You create a story that matters.”  

Writing the Wrongs means  to find the right in the wrong; the positive will be there if you look hard enough.

It means to reshape the wrongs into rights; regardless of how difficult the task seems it will always be possible if you try hard enough. 

It is about writing the fictional story that will matter to our readers, but it is also about reevaluating, repurposing, recasting and writing and rewriting the wrong things that will inevitably happen TO us and BY us, in our own real life stories.

Joshua 1:9:  Have not I commanded you, Be Strong, Of good courage.  Be not frightened, neither be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Re-structuring the Father/Son Relationship around Hopeful Possibility

Apr26

Which comes first; the real life stereotypical experience of the father/son relationship struggle around which writers construct their fiction, or the writer’s fiction that permits and normalizes real life relationships to get stuck or go bad?  Like the famous chicken or the egg question, the answer may stump us, as we wonder if it can be possible to end the infinite cycle of ongoing hopeless inevitability that dictates the father/son relationship by restructuring our stories around hopeful possibility instead, both in fiction and in real life.

In literature, the father /son relationship often comes riddled with the father’s belief that good fatherly parenting is done best through the “manly” iron- fist method passed down by father to father to father, combined with the son’s yearning to feel worthy, loved and accepted, causing a perpetual and  futile battle between earning and showing respect. Each party’s need stands in direct contrast with the other’s, which prevents any degree of long standing compromise or truce that could result in an emotionally balanced and joyful, healthy  relationship.

Writers typically craft their stories to mirror these common relationship struggles that fracture the ever important bond between father and son (or between any individuals in any relationship for that matter).So many of the narratives we read, and the television shows and movies we watch, replicate the all too common rocky relationships between fathers and sons.  Certainly, as writers, it is our job to depict these relationship struggles to acknowledge their realistic existence, to point out they are indeed there, but also to take it a step further, to work toward mending the relationship during that creative process.  Like the Medical Doctor who makes his diagnosis first; his service will not be of any value if he stops there before providing a treatment to heal the affliction.

As we know, writing to reflect universal issues in real life attracts and engages audiences who experience similar situations. People in general like to feel they are not alone when facing tribulation, that they are not experiencing things no one else has, or that they are not reacting to the situation badly, unusually or incorrectly.  Reading about individuals immersed in similar circumstances helps to ease the pain, close the wound or soften the scar.  Perhaps even to provide hope.

In 7 Tips to Writing Father and Son Relationships, author Charles Yallowitz, in his epic fantasy series Legends of Windermere, points out the relationship hurdles facing fathers and sons and how to re-write these experiences into fiction that might distill murky waters with a more hopeful plotline. He says where once upon a time it was considered less manly to show the father’s emotion, that it was always the “mother’s” job to do that, it does not need to be like that, that this status quo can change.  He suggests this can be done by establishing the type of relationship you want the father /son to possess in the story, and grow everything around that.

 ….something about the father/son challenge turns into toxicity in writing.  Authors seem to want the father to be the villain or the son to be the young fool, which doesn’t need to be the case to make the story interesting or credible.  In fact, he adds; , The son doesn’t always have to be railing and battling against the father … and fathers aren’t always disappointed in their sons.  He further warns; This is a common trope.. . and the story doesn’t always have to involve the near destruction of the father/son relationship. While there should be boundaries between the father and son, and  the father should contain a level of authority instead of coming off solely as a friend.  Finally, he adds; Boundaries don’t always have to be pushed and broken.

Supporting the idea to instill hopeful possibility into the father/son relationship experience- to replace hopeless inevitability, many chapters of the bible convey messages to fathers about providing compassionate guidance and loving encouragement to sons, as well as messages for sons to honor and respect their fathers.  These messages of the bible inspire anger-less discipline, an uninterrupted steadfast flow of open communication and genuine acceptance from the father as he guides his son toward manhood, toward becoming a man with strong character, integrity and healthy decision making.  Some examples to demonstrate this idea can be found in Ephesians 6:4 :  Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.  Or in 2 Samuel 7:14-15, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him. And in John 5:19 in which Jesus said, “The son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing.”

Indeed, the son learns from his father -who like it or not is the son’s role model-for good or bad- by observing how his father leads his life, treats others, handles adversity and the manner in which his father communicates and shows emotion. In response, the son will learn to imitate his father, and depending on what he observes, he may learn to become a man of integrity, good ethics and morals, and of honor, or in contrast he might learn to hold in anger, distance himself, rebel, become violent and even get into trouble.

Author, Matt Fogelson, in the February 2026 Writers Digest article: Finding the Emotional Center of a Memoir, describes his own relationship struggle with his father and how he had to work through the emotional absence he felt.  Sons feel an almost primal need to forge connections with their fathers… It’s a need that probably goes back to the cave man and is as strong as the need for fire.   He says; if absence is something we inherit, presence is something we have to choose. 

Likewise, Writers Digest Editor Robert Lee Brewer’s October 2022 interview with Author Roman Tune speaks to those hopeless inevitabilities in Tune’s, ” I Wish My Dad: The Power of Vulnerable Conversations Between Fathers and Sons.”   He too discusses his own healing process through his relationship with his father.  His advice to writers is; Tell the story in ways that give readers permission to feel their feelings and heal and thrive.  Be courageously transparent by not just showing your wounds but be sure to show readers your scars because scars are the evidence of healing….. As a writer, you have the ability to inspire people on their journey of becoming the best version of themselves that they can possibly become in their lifetime.

In other words, reflect reality in a way that gently validates the very real hopeless inevitability that has traditionally dictated the plot-line around which the father/son relationship narrative has been written and lived thus far, along with the destruction it has caused, but to revise the plot-line this time with hopeful possibility as the fix, the treatment or the cure that has the real possibility to heal or at least provide hope.

In Jamie Ford’s novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, the relationship between father and son is told through the perspective of the young son Henry and his struggle with his emotionally distant father, who was controlling and rigid with his beliefs and subsequent parenting style, and also as father to his own son Marty years later as he works to break the pattern, to heal both old scars and new wounds he had been in the process of creating. The lack of meaningful communication between father and son was based on a lifetime of isolation…. Whatever stumbling methods of communication Henry had used with his own father seemed to have been passed down to Marty.

Although the struggles between fathers and sons are unfortunately and undeniably complicated and real, and as writers we are tasked to acknowledge and mirror that stoic reality, perhaps if we re-frame the narrative with a more trans-formative architectural design we can open the door for change that provides a brighter outcome. If writers, and individuals in general, pay homage to the seemingly mundane “un-masculine” positive father/son interactions usually benched to allow room for dramatic effect or to fulfill stereotypical expectations, and validate the subtle, although uncomfortable attempts by fathers and sons to connect that traditionally were viewed as too un-manly, unflattering or unworthy to highlight, or mainstream those awkward efforts each father makes to step outside comfort zones handed down by past generations and conventional perimeters, and if we encourage and admire the willingness of both participants to risk image, pride, control or rejection for the sake of love, the answer to the “Which comes first” question just might not matter anymore. Maybe then, the question will lose its attraction and intrigue once the current stoic father/son relationship narrative is torn down and rebuilt around a new and revised plot-line that creates momentum for change rather than to follow the same old outdated outline created by generations of the past. 

Then perhaps, there truly might be hope to end the infinite cycle of ongoing hopeless inevitability that dictates the father/son relationship by restructuring our stories around hopeful possibility instead, both in fiction and in real life.

Hebrews 11:1 Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (RSV)

It is All About How and Where You Place the First Domino

Feb28

Like tipping dominos, every decision we make triggers a chain reaction of events or consequences that either fall into place neatly like alphabetically aligned books on a shelf or out of place chaotically like a carpet of confetti on New Year’s morning.  We can make mindful decisions that are well thought out for intentional outcomes or we can make our choices hastily without giving them a second thought.

In the Writer’s Digest Feb 2021 article: Plot Twist Story Prompts: Forced Decisions, Author/ Editor, Robert Lee Brewer says the following:   How characters handle making decisions reveals a lot about them. Some people seem born to make decisions without a second thought to whether they’re right or wrong. Others agonize over the tiniest decisions and will shut down if given the chance. Whether small or large, each decision we make sends action ripples forward, altering the elevation, length or direction of our own individual path or someone else’s.

Take for instance, Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”, in which two conflicting paths in the woods serve as a metaphor for making important life decisions.  The speaker in this poem ultimately chooses “the road less traveled by”, -a decision that “has made all the difference” pointing toward how a single decision at any intersection or junction can determine the entire trajectory of one’s life or at least an important part of it.

Complicating this further, as much as we like to think our decisions will affect only ourselves, they are not stand alone dominoes, each one an island, isolated and insignificant.  Every choice we make could impact other individuals and their stories or their part in ours, from family and friends to community, society and the world.  That first domino touches the next one, and the next one touches the one after that and so on.  One small decision, prompted by a single seemingly unimportant thought, idea, or judgment could invoke anywhere from a minor ramification to a colossal aftershock beyond repair.  Sometimes we might know that in advance and other times the consequences take us completely by surprise.

 As we know, an action does not become an action without a thought to trigger it, however; in between the tiny space between the two is the decision directing us like a crossing guard with the ability to prevent or cause catastrophe. And further, supporting the thoughts that impact our decisions, there are the contributing variables that further influence outcomes, some positive like faith, love, friendship, grace, mercy, and so forth and others that can easily generate negative results, like the need for immediate gratification, selfishness, greed, pride, sloth and so many more -each resulting decision serving as the first domino in a line of dependents. 

In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus makes the decision to defend Tom Robinson, despite realizing he likely won’t win, attesting to his strong morals and belief that equality should prevail over racism. He further chooses compassion over the law when he covers for Boo to avoid destroying another man’s life.  Additionally, the jury engages in collective decision-making when they subscribe to racial prejudice rather than actual evidence. And of course we have Boo Radley himself who makes the self- sacrificing decision to save innocent children from Bob Ewell’s acts of evil.  All of these decisions are influenced by contributing factors like courage, ethics, morals, societal conformity, injustice, racism and more- both positive and negative.

In F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the naive and narrow-minded pursuit of the American Dream, the need to feel accepted in society, and the quest to follow love although blindly and irresponsibly, drive the characters’ decisions. Jay Gatsby, Daisy and Tom make careless decisions nurtured by reckless ideas of love and desire, selfishness and a tainted view of the world and one another. 

In E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web:  Charlotte makes the decision to save Wilber out of loyalty, selflessness, love and friendship while at first Wilbur makes no decision, remaining passive- depending on others, until later when he makes the decision to care for Charlotte’s children in a chain reaction set in motion by Charlotte’s first carefully and strategically positioned domino inspired by love, friendship and loyalty at play.

In Victor Hugo’s Les Miserable, the characters learn the value of individual choices that have the ability to  transform life and society, choosing between redemption and  safety, between the law and mercy, compassion and self-interest, love and self survival, love and duty. Each character faces a struggle that comes with difficult decision-making -each one affecting another character’s personal confrontation with adversity. As Hugo writes;  “ The straight line is a respectable optical illusion which ruins many a man”.  In other words, nothing is black or white or easy.  One tipped domino might cause a chain reaction of ripples that can save or destroy lives.

And in one of my favorite stories, Frank Capra’s movie; It’s a Wonderful Life,  George Bailey must make self sacrificing decision after decision for the sake of those he loves and the small town he always thought he wanted to leave behind for “greener pastures”. Each of the dominoes he generously and selflessly sets up affects so many others, revealing the far-reaching deep impact of each one of his decisions, opening eyes to the more important purposes in life:  love, friendship, faith and family.

Even within the greatest narrative of all time, the Holy Bible, there are stories to reflect the varying consequences related to decision making that result in life changing outcomes.  Some of these include the Jericho prostitute Rehab’s decision  to hide Joshua’s spies despite the extreme risk to her life and family,  the decision made by  Paul from Tarsus to follow Jesus after at first persecuting Jesus and his followers, Adam and Eve’s decision to disobey God’s command not to bite the forbidden fruit,  Daniel’s decision to choose faith in God over fear for his life, David’s decision to face the Giant with only a stone and a sling as his weapon, Joseph’s decision to believe in Mary’s faithfulness and virginity so that he could father the Son of God, Moses’ decision to chose his Jewish heritage over the Egyptian protection he had grown up with,  and Abraham’s reluctant decision to obey God’s command to potentially sacrifice his beloved son Isaac.  This decision making in the bible that requires active faith and trust in God, always difficult, sometimes agonizing and yet not impossible, demonstrates how one domino has the power to affect other dominoes lined up in its path. Psalm 119:105, reads “your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path”, signifying that decisions should honor God’s word, which serves as a guide for life’s path.   It is our responsibility to decide and act obediently while God takes care of the associated outcomes; our decisions are influenced by what we place and nurture inside us to ultimately determine the journey ahead.

Whether we are the authors of our own life stories or of the fictional stories we create, setting up the first domino at the start of the line, we are the ones in control, the ones to whom our creator gifted free will, decision-making and fate. Whether we realize the effects that first domino placement will have on our own part in our own story or the effects our decisions will have on others who take part somewhere else in our story or in their own story, in the end it is ALL about how and where we place each decision-making domino that matters. Each one of those dominoes decides the connecting fate awaiting each of us or our characters in the last line of our story as the final domino either topples over in disappointing or tragic outcome or remains standing, ever-faithful, righteous, hopeful and strong.

Every Draft Counts… Our stories often need to fall apart before they will fall into place

Dec31

The number of drafts it takes for the writer to craft before the story is complete varies between authors, and even between each writer’s own pieces of work.  Some might only write two or three drafts while others may write many more. 

Take for instance, Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, which took seven drafts to complete and Margaret Mitchell’s nine drafts over a ten year period to produce Gone with the Wind. It is also said that it took J.K. Rowlings up to fifteen drafts to write her famous first book in the Harry Potter series.  The point is that the final, finished product is not achieved overnight, or easily.  It takes much “tearing down and rebuilding”, or trial and error, and getting things wrong first to get things right. But, all of that hard work will be worth the effort because in the end, regardless of the final draft tally, each attempt builds upon the last and adds value toward the overall story.  Each draft counts, because- you see- our stories often do fall apart before they can fall into place.

Ernest Hemingway once said; the first draft of anything is shit. In fact, it is said that he rewrote the ending to Farewell to Arms forty seven times before getting it to finish the way he wanted.  Anne Lamott in her “Bird by Bird” book on writing suggests the same idea when she said; Write an incredibly shitty, self indulgent, whiny, mewling first draft then take out as many of the excesses as you can. She referred to her own three draft process of writing the first draft as the down draft or child draft in which she writes freely whatever comes to mind, like a child, to get it all down.  This is followed by the up draft in which she begins the editing/ revision process and finally she produces the third and final draft, where she line edits.

Recently, I was drawn into a relationship breakup between two people I love very much.  They met when they were in college and remained in their relationship for several years before each of them had made enough poor decisions to wear down the integrity of the bond they shared.  In the end, those mistakes became too much.  The weight they carried eventually grew too heavy to uphold the framework of their relationship- pushing it to crumble into pieces like a neglected old barn that could no longer weather the storms. 

That relationship “tear –down” is not about me, however. I am merely standing on the outside watching their relationship fall apart like a reader with an emotionally provoking book in her lap. They are their story’s main characters who feel the direct brunt of their pain.   All I can do is offer my love, support and sought after advice.  And in that advice, I remind them that it can take many attempts (drafts) to eventually come up with the final product.  They may need to go through several  tear-downs and rebuilds and relationships before they find the right partner OR they could one day rework this very relationship narrative once they have fixed themselves enough to finally get it right.

Each effort we make will help us to know what we truly do want or do not want, what we need or deserve, whether out of a relationship, from a partner, or from a job or anything else, because each attempt moves us forward, either toward someone or something else with whom we are meant to be or toward a restructured version of the earlier failed chapter that will work this time around.  Sometimes, our starting point might be the place we were meant to be all along.  Or -sometimes not.  The only sure way to figure that out is to keep drafting.

Because truly, our stories often do need to fall apart before they can fall into place. None of us are perfect and rarely do we as human beings hit the lottery the first time we play or place first in the race the first time we run.  But, one thing is as certain as the sun rising each morning- every one of those drafts will count toward the end result that will work best for us.

In a February 2009 Writers Digest article, Author Elizabeth Sims said; youneed to give yourself permission to make mistakes because you haven’t forgiven yourself for past ones. Unless your throttle is wide open, you’re not giving it everything you’ve got.  T here will be trial and error, and drafts that contain excess you won’t need, thoughts, ideas and words that won’t work.  But none of that is a waste of time or effort because it will always point you toward the final draft that will work.  

Y.A Author and Playwright D.M. King said in his 2016 Writers Digest article: Six things to consider after you write your first draft”  when he was comparing his first girl crush to writing drafts;  I was so sure she was the one” (she wasn’t). ..that first draft was so easy to fall in love with because of the countless hours you’ve spent together drawing upon the muse and flooding  the page with your once-in-a –lifetime story. In other words, in your first draft you pour it all out- onto the paper letting every thought and word fall out freely without edit or revision or second thought.  You make a big fat mess, like a three year old with all ten fingers dripping in paint as he glides his fingers back and forth to cover the canvas.  He has no idea what his masterpiece will look like when it is finished although he has his expectations in mind, but that won’t stop him from allowing his creativity and imagination from taking the reins in the meantime. 

First drafts will contain errors, mistakes, and even failures. The first draft attempt is where the writer gets to know her characters- what they look like, how they think, what they want from life, and it is where she builds the world in which they will live. It is where she chooses between the different paths they might take and the potential endings they might have.  She will overwrite and underwrite here, but that is okay.  She will figure it all out later when the frenzy fades and she can see more clearly.  This is the place where she lays the concrete for her foundation, where she tills the soil in preparation for the garden she will grow, where she lays down the first layer of primer to prep her walls and it is where she gives birth to the story inside her.

It is in the subsequent drafts where she will cut, tweak, and add accordingly. That will be where she will pull the weeds, smooth out the cracks, and toss out the junk to create something new, something better.  She will tear down and she will re-build.

In the last two chapters of the bible, in revelations 21:1 the word new means fresh or renewed. The new earth will be the old earth made new again by purging out all the age long evidences of sin and the curse, decay and death. The very “elements” will be melted and dissolved in fervent heat…. It is a tearing down of the current sin-broken world and creating new through a complete and perfect recreation. This is true in our stories, in our relationships, in our dreams and in our lives.  As Author Jack Smith says in “ A Writer’s Guide to Second Drafts”  in The Writer Nov/Dec 2022 issue;  If seasoned writers know one thing, they know this; you don’t get it right the first time.

To this point, Victoria Gilbert, mystery writer also says in that same Nov/Dec 2022 article; don’t be afraid to make major changes, you can still retain the heart of your novel while doing extensive revisions.  Don’t be afraid to cut, shift or even add material.  You aren’t destroying your vision-you’re enhancing it. And in that same article Author Marjan Kamali  adds;  you may need to do a complete retstructuring/regutting of the first draft.

Likewise, in the Larry Brooks’ Writer’s Digest May/June 2020 “Revising: Beginning your Story Fixing Efforts”,  Brooks says it this way: A Great Story is like a House of Cards- Each level bears weight and demands artful balance, and when you swap out one card for another the whole thing teeters for a while, until you make it work.  The principles of gravity and balance are the only forces available to make revising that house of cards so successful.

It IS a tearing down, a swapping out of the parts that do not work with the parts that do.  You may need to tear it down more than once but that is okay because our stories often need to fall apart more than once before they will fall into place.  And that is further okay because every one of those drafts counts.  In “Dig In or Cut Yourself Free” written by Andromeda Romano-Lax in the Writer’s Digest Jan/Feb 2022 issue:  the author quotes  Andre Bubus III with this;  I don’t exaggerate when I say that 90 to 95 percent of whatever I put out into the world rose from the ashes of what failed or from what I wanted to write.  To which he adds; Sometimes, he laughs, You throw it all out.  Jordan Rosenfeld in her May/June 2021 Writer’s Digest article; “Open Endings”,  also says it this way; Sometimes it takes multiple drafts to achieve the ending you’ve been seeking.

Like the broken relationship between the two people I love, torn down to allow the time and the space to rebuild themselves – to ultimately land them in the right relationship that will work, the broken pieces from our drafts can be fixed, and made better or discarded to make space for the pieces that will fit. And regardless of how many tears shed or how many promises were broken within each relationship we had, each draft that we thought perfect and permanent while we were there in that chapter at that moment, laid the foundation for a new, improved chapter later.

Each draft, whether in a real-life relationship story or any other life- story, or in the fictional story we craft, has a time and a purpose and those drafts we write and rewrite will always be worth our time, effort and heartbreak because in the end after those parts of our stories fall apart they will fall into place because, well-  every draft counts.

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Dear Reader, I thank you once again for following along on my blog journey this thirteenth year and I hope as you worked on each of your own chapter drafts of 2025, they carried with them much joy, love and good health in addition to the lessons they taught and the memories they created, and that the chapters ahead continue to build upon them.  In the words of Richard Paul Evans’ in his heartfelt story; “The Christmas Stranger”; The promise of life, like a book, is that the end of each chapter is the beginning of the next.  It is my wish that each of your beginning chapters carries with it those lessons and love from each previous chapter.   Because, as is quoted by Soren Keirkegaard  in Evans’ novel’s  acknowledgments;  Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards. 

The good versus evil battle between the villain and the hero

Oct31

During this season of witches, black cats, ghosts and goblins, displays of Halloween evil throw dark shadows far and wide as all kinds of wicked characters dominate movies and television shows, lit up front yard displays, party decorations, and in the enthusiastic trick-or- treat costumes lining sidewalks and front porches on every corner. Then, once the season is over, these naughty villains disappear from sight – until they make their appearance again next year.

Unlike those pretend evil bad-doers, the villain antagonists in our fictional stories do not disappear from the books lining library and book- store shelves the way the seasonal ones depart on the first of November each year; instead they continue to wreak havoc on the protagonist- heroes living beside them all year long.  Also, unlike the costumed Halloween celebrators, these antagonists are not so easy to spot on the surface.  Their evil is often hidden or disguised deep enough to make it impossible to recognize at first glance.

In Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde, the protagonist – well respected Dr. Edward Hyde creates a serum to justify the immoral feelings and thoughts festering within him that he has resisted thus far, until those temptations grow too strong to fight any longer.  After he creates and empowers  the villainous Mr. Henry Hyde – the evil part of himself, he realizes too late, after having indulged in heinous behavior,  that the only way to fight evil is first to correctly identify it as such, then to resist its temptation, and finally to destroy it, without ever giving it even a second of life.

Similarly, in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, readers are at first led to believe the story’s evil antagonist villain is the monster Dr.  Victor Frankenstein creates, but ultimately after Dr. Victor creates, then rejects and ultimately abandons the creature he brought to life, we learn that it is Dr. Victor Frankenstein himself who is the real monster in the story and to some degree so is the prejudiced and shallow society who shuns the creature because of his looks alone, without ever having given him a chance.

Other fictional antagonist villains include such well known actors as Lee Harper’s Bob Ewell in To Kill a Mockingbird who accuses Tom Robinson of rape, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatbsy, with his corrupt old money and selfishness that ultimately leads Gatsby to his downfall, and William Golding’s Jack Merridew  in Lord of the Flies with his hunger for power and subsequent descent into savagery, to name just a few.  They may not look like evil monsters on the outside but they are wicked all the same. Just like in our real world.

In Marc Chacksfield’s Shortlist of the 41 Greatest Villains of literature, he describes the best villains as he sees it:  To have a hero, you need a villain. And in the annals of literary history, there have been some downright scoundrels, to put it mildly …….No deed is too dark, no action too despicable for this list of utter reprobates……You should feel very very glad that these dastardly characters are confined to the pages of the books that contain them.  And yet, we have to wonder if Chacksfield is right; are these villainous characters REALLY confined to the pages of the books we read or are they breathing, walking and living amongst us out here in our real world? We have certainly witnessed a good amount of evil events acted out by real life villains here in our real world. One only needs to turn on the news or read someone’s social medial pages to be drawn into real life scenes of evil that mirror what we read in fiction.

In the July/August 2025 How to Write amid chaos, author Tiffany Yates Martin explains how the villains in fictional narratives help us in our real life stories ; We see ourselves and the people around us in story- it offers insight about the human condition, alternative perspectives and universal longings and struggles.  In the pages of a story, we might understand what motivates even those we disagree with and see them not as a faceless other but as a whole people-complex, flawed, and wounded, just as we all are. And the shared appreciation of story can surmount even the most powerful differences, offering common ground to bring people together.

Human beings have always been fascinated by or drawn to some form of evil going back to the Garden of Eden when evil made its first appearance. Whether it lies in the bite of an apple, or at the side of a road in a horrific automobile wreckage, or on the big screen in a motion picture, or within the character of someone we know or love, its dark magnetic attraction draws us to it like one of those souvenir magnets sticking to a refrigerator. Is it curiosity, entertainment, or a need to fill or question a void within us that draws us toward the darkness?  Or is it our way of telling ourselves we have ONLY goodness and kindness inside, that we are incapable of harboring dark thoughts or engaging in any level of villainous behaviors. By recognizing and classifying evil elsewhere perhaps we can assure ourselves we are immune from it like taking a vaccine to ward off disease, that we are protected from its influence.

In Moriah Richard’s March/April 2025 Writers Digest interview with award winning author Stephen Graham Jones, she asks Jones if people ask him why he writes so much horror when the real world is horrifying enough, to which he responds; … I think what gazing at the flames of the fire can do is when we engage horror media, whatever kind, we’re seeing characters struggling through a dark, violent , terrible, scary tunnel, the same way we are.  The difference is those characters on screen; on the page… they get to the end. And that gives us here in the real world, in our own dark tunnels, hope that there is going to be an end to this horror story.

 Robert Louis Stevenson said it like this; In each of us, two natures are at war-the good and the evil.  All our lives the fight goes on between them, and one of them must conquer. But in our own hands lies the power to choose-what we want most to be we are.  His Jeckyll/Hyde idea resonates in the old native folklore originated by the Cherokee people;  A elderly native American once told the story to his grandson of how there exists two wolves inside each of us. One of the wolves is mean and evil, he told the child, while the other wolf is good and kind. The evil wolf fights the good wolf continuously. When the grandson asked him which wolf wins the battle, the elderly native American answers “ The one we feed.”

 Saint Francis of Assisi once said; All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.  Each one of us has the capability to be that candle. Despite the need for villains to exist to balance out a narrative or add excitement and suspense in our fiction, it is the heroes facing evil who oppose it, resist it or outright defeat it who inspire us to grow, to find our purpose, to carry hope, to help others and to believe that anything is possible if you fight hard enough for it.

 In the good versus evil battle between heroes and villains, we witness the infinite possibility and incredible power the single candle has to bring light to a world overflowing with darkness and despair.  And in feeding only the good wolf, we can starve the evil one or at least give him the opportunity to change sides if he wants to survive.                           

Written words are not footprints in the sand

Aug31

I have often wondered what of me my children will remember. Will they remember how much I loved them?  Will they remember the many wonderful times we shared together?  And what of these memories will impact their life stories and the way they navigate through their own futures?  Will they take bits and pieces of us with them or will those bits and pieces eventually disappear like dried up leaves in the wind.

In Amy Harmon’s “What the Wind knows”, the author discusses this thought:  We were specks, bits of glass and dust.  We were as numerous as the sands that lined the strand, one unrecognizable from the other. We were born; we lived; we died.  And the cycle continued endlessly on.  So many lives lived. And when we died, we simply vanished.  A few generations would go by. And no one would know we even were. No one would remember the color of our eyes or the passion that raged inside us.  Eventually, we all became stones in the grass, moss covered monuments, and sometimes… not even that.

The idea of our temporary existence verses permanently leaving our mark within our small beloved circles of family and friends, or the expanded, larger circles of community, society and even the world is a question that I have pondered every now and then. Are we merely footprints in the sand, to be washed away with the next generational tide, erased as if we were almost never even here?  For how long will our descendants remember us?  Surely, one day all they will be left with are faded photographs with barely legible identity labels to mark our blurry once upon a time existence.

In contrast to our impermanent state, WORDS ARE forever.  The stories we write and read and share  leave immortal recordings of our adventures, passions, lessons, history, ideas, wisdom and narratives that transcend time like the stars in the sky, the waves in the ocean and the ancient trees inhabiting our state forests. From the Bible to ancient Greece’s Homer with his 8th century “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey”- to Aesop’s famous fables, to Plato’s exploration of ideas, reality and the ideal society, to Aristotle’s pathos, ethos and logos, and all the other great works of literature lining book shelves everywhere, words were written, read, analyzed and preserved for their present day readers as well as for future audiences, providing an infinite promise of timeless and profound effect on our lives.  

Prominent English writer, William Hazlitt once said; Words are the only things that last forever; they are more durable than the eternal hills. What truly shapes the world is not the physical landscapes we esteem or the material possessions we value and accumulate over time, but the written ideas and stories we grow from our hearts and our ever curious minds, that we pass down, read and remember that enriches our connection to one another and our creator, that honors our similarities and differences, and immortalizes our love for one another- that is most important and eternal.

In the Writer Digest January/February interview with world-renowned astrophysicist and author, Neil deGrasse Tyson, contributing author Zachary Petit asks Mr. deGrasse Tyson to describe how he came to love words;  Words can have influence beyond just the dictionary definition of their meaning, because when you string words together in a particular way, the sum of the sequence of words is greater than what they would weigh individually.  He later discusses why he feels the world needs poets (artists of words -or writers), he says I don’t need you to poeticize something that is already a visual spectacle achievement of this species.  Those are not the times I need an artist. You know when I need an artist? When I forgot how to pay attention to something, when I forgot how to love, when I forgot how to see the beauty in something that’s hidden in plain sight. And you force me, by the string of words, to take pause and say, “Wow, I never thought about it that way. It is more beautify than I ever realized, or it is beautiful in a way I never thought it was.”

In my own home office I have a frame on my book shelf displaying author Zadie Smith’s quote: The very reason I write is so that I might not sleepwalk through my entire life.  It is through the words we thread together that we uncover and give meaning to the way we see life, the way we feel life, the way we mold life and the way we live it.  By paying attention to and placing value on our surroundings- the people, places, events, and emotions and ideas in our world and by writing about it -we craft what Neil deGrasse Tyson says artists do so perfectly:  For me, he says, access to beauty requires an artist because they see things that are otherwise invisible to the rest of us. Words have that special magic to capture and magnify all kinds of beauty and to bring that beauty to life- and even further- to shield it from the aging process that eventually erodes, destroys or erases everything else.

However, while words can be timeless pieces of art, to be honored, admired and valued for years to come, they can also cause pain and irrevocable damage when thrown about impulsively, carelessly or in a moment of weakness, when shaped without thoughtful consideration for the consequent influence they might have.  Despite our modern technology that makes it easy to delete or erase regretful words on a screen, there will almost always be a permanent footprint left somewhere in the universe with the potential to leave behind a heart broken, a friendship cost, a promise not kept, an act of wrong-doing or any number of non-intentional results that have ever- lasting effects. Words are treasures to be valued- never to be taken for granted or abused.

We are here -for the minute our creator gave us- living as real- life characters in our own hybrid of autobiographical-fictional life stories, and as fleeting as our time is here, it is up to us to make that time inspiringly and optimistically meaningful in some way or somewhere- for someone- or some-ones- with our words…  The right words…The best words….The words that earn the right to outlive us.

 Like the fourth of July fireworks, with their short-lived but impactful bursts of red, blue, purple and gold that dazzle the smooth dark sky, we peak and then we fizzle out, ultimately disappearing from sight.  Like temporary puddles after a hard rain so very present in those moments, we too will eventually evaporate from the earth’s surface, one day gone with little to no trace of our existence.

And like footprints in the sand, we too will wash away over time while the words we leave behind will linger far into the future, long after the tides have been here and gone.

Literary Fiction adds Depth and Interest to what we create, what we read and how we live.

Jun29

Although some say Literary Fiction might at times be dark or depressing, even too difficult to define, that it is not a genre on its own, it IS at the very least an impactful writing style that lends itself to other genres- to explore the many different facets of the human condition. Blending within other literary genres like added flavors combining to create a more superb recipe, fragments of literary fiction can melt inside historical fiction, fantasy, mystery, and other genres like butter in a cake batter that is at first bland or possibly even tasteless until the finishing ingredients are added.

Jessica Dukes says in her Celedon Books article the following; Character-driven stories, social and political themes, irreverence for storytelling norms- these elements set Literary Fiction apart. She adds that it is generally considered more “serious” than genre fiction. But, she continues, if one universal theme could be applied, it’s this: No-one has figured out the meaning of life, other than to acknowledge that there’s more than one way to live it.

Is not that what is so poignant and powerful about inspecting the humanness of life and adding that depth to the stories we create and devour, to understand our human strengths and our inevitable flaws as best as possible, to help us live our best lives?

In addition to standing majestically on its own, a sliver of literary fiction can ripple through literary genres like a skipped stone impacting a still water pond. The water, at first is calm and solid, predictable and steady, but when the stone is introduced, that same surface transforms into a more moving, metaphoric, and  magnificent kind of beauty -full of interest, exhilaration and life.  The ripples we set in motion extend in size, trajectory and depth just as the narrative we create can be greatly reshaped by the measures of literary fiction we inject.

Guest writer Sanjida O’Connell in Jane Friedman’s February 18, 2025 Publishing Reporting blog describes Literary Fiction this way:

First, for me, is that it should be Intellectual. A literary novel is about ideas

I think literary works have Depth

And last but not least is Style. I think we all expect a classic novel to be written in such beautiful prose it makes you want to weep, pause and stare at the sky or feel the words rolling through your mind like pebbles smoothed by the sea.

Some write and read to entertain, to memorialize an experience, to describe and learn about a current event, to explain or understand a piece of history, or to address or be introduced to a prominent individual. Others write and read ALSO to share or expand on an idea, to provoke, inspire or extract thought or emotion, to bring meaning to something about life or to better understand our purpose in it, to make sense of the big questions that have eluded us like seashells shoved further out to sea by the endless and powerful undercurrent, perpetually outside our grasp…yet always there.

Similarly, within our stories of fiction, whether historical, mystery, suspense, science fiction, romance, dystopian YA, or anything else, regardless of the reason we write or read, there is always an undercurrent of thematic importance present.  It may be as simple as rain or as complicated as the Riemann hypothesis, but every worthwhile story in my opinion is derived from a work of literary genius that inspects, depicts, magnifies or questions the human condition at some level. Whether the story evolves from a basic plot line or a serious question, it mirrors who we were, who we are and who we might become. And therefore, even if fleeting and although not always clearly evident, there could be to some degree, a bit of literary fiction in every narrative.

Editor, MICHAEL WOODSON In his March 2023 Writer’s Digest article; What is Literary Fiction?, provides this definition of Literary Fiction;

In my experience, contemporary literary fiction is a creative and unique writing style coming from a truly diverse range of writers where all the rules get to be broken. Literary fiction can be any genre and should be for the masses, because at the heart of every work of literary fiction is the human experience.

….Literary fiction is often slower in its pacing and welcomes readers to take their time in the process; to dawdle in the details. It’s often observational, conflicts arising from the internal, with some aspects of the story still left open in the final pages.

The human condition is the foundation upon which all thoughts and actions are forged. The music we listen to, the artwork we admire, the movies we watch, and the books we read all parallel, depict, tell about, question or come from some feature of the human condition. The plot-line holding up the story within commercial fiction is only as sturdy as the internal humanness tagging along beside it, like a supportive fan feeding momentum to the scaffolding design.  Essentially, literary fiction acts as a story’s synergist, ensemble and champion, adding universal connection, contemplation and clarity to emotionally heighten or elevate ANY story.

The following snippets of Literary Fiction reflect how its ripples of human interconnectedness can add to ANY of our narratives and subsequently to our minds, our hearts, our souls and ultimately to our lives:

In Sean Dietrich’s Kinfolk:   But then, life was full of overlooked miracles. And miracles never happen the way you expect them to. They are softer than a baby’s breath. They are, at times, as noticeable as a ladybug. A miracle is not a big thing. A miracle is millions and millions of small things working together. But then, this didn’t matter. Not really. Because Minnie had come to believe that life was not about finding miracles, or happiness, or success, or purpose, nor was it about avoiding disappointment. It was about finding people. People are what makes life worth it. People are the buried treasure. People who understand you. People who will bleed with you. People who make your life richer. Your people. Your kinfolk.

In Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano:

 William turned toward her and found himself looking directly into Sylvie’s eyes. He had the strange sense she was looking inside him, to the truth of him. He hadn’t known this was possible. When Julia gazed at William, she was trying to see the man she wanted him to be. She couldn’t see, or didn’t want to see, who he actually was.

” ( And on page 101) William didn’t understand what had happened to him and his sister-in-law on the bench that night but it felt dangerous, like a shining dagger that could cut through his life as if it were made of paper.

Also in Hello Beautiful:

We’re part of the sky, and the rocks in your mother’s garden, and that old man who sleeps by the train station. We’re all interconnected, and when you see that, you see how beautiful life is. Your mother and sisters don’t have that awareness. Not yet, anyway. They believe they’re contained in their bodies, in the biographical facts of their lives

From The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni:

 Our skin, our hair, and our eyes are simply the shell that surrounds our soul, and our soul is who we are. What counts is on the inside.

From The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare:

My mama say education will give me a voice. I want more than just a voice, Ms. Tia. I want a louding voice,” I say. “I want to enter a room and people will hear me even before I open my mouth to be speaking. I want to live in this life and help many people so that when I grow old and die, I will still be living through the people I am helping.

 Also from The Girl with the Louding Voice:

 I want to tell her that God is not a cement building of stones and sand. That God is not for all that putting inside a house and locking Him there. I want her to know that the only way to know if a person finds God and keeps Him in their heart is to check how the person is treating other people, if he treats people like Jesus says–with love, patience, kindness, and forgiveness.

From Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

It is so easy to be hopeful in the daytime when you can see the things you wish on. But it was night, it stayed night. Night was striding across nothingness with the whole round world in his hands . . . They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against cruel walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.

From The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded; not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.

From John Boyne’s, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

What exactly was the difference? He wondered to himself. And who decided which people wore the striped pajamas and which people wore the uniforms?

From Kristin Hannah’s, Winter Garden

 They would always be a family, but if she’d learned anything in the past few weeks it was that a family wasn’t a static thing. There were always changes going on. Like with continents, sometimes the changes were invisible and underground, and sometimes they were explosive and deadly. The trick was to keep your balance. You couldn’t control the direction of your family any more than you could stop the continental shelf from breaking apart. All you could do was hold on for the ride.

From Kelly Rimmer’s , The Things We Cannot Say

Life has a way of shattering our expectations, of leaving our hopes in pieces without explanation. But when there’s love in a family, the fragments left behind from our shattered dreams can always be pulled together again, even if the end result is a mosaic.

And finally in Susan Meissner’s older 2005 novel; A Window to the World, a story built around a simple plotline that would not necessarily be considered “Literary Fiction”, there is a passage that provides an example of how some degree of literary fiction exists in any good story, regardless whether the tale is character or plot driven; David was quiet as Megan slowly began to grasp how Jen’s disappearance had shaped her, how something twisted and wrong had nevertheless been used by God for better purposes, how the people she had met after abduction had influenced her, how there had been beauty after and within the misery.  She suddenly thought of the canyon, which like so many things was nothing but a memory. She remembered how wild and scary it was and yet how stunning and majestic….. “ You think your past is something to be buried and forgotten but it isn’t, David said gently “ Your past, all of it- the good and the bad- is what God used to make you, you.”

Although some of these passages are taken from clearly identifiable literary fiction,  others share living space within the seemingly confined walls of historical fiction or other genres, where  the lines of separation between plot- driven and character- driven genres can blur, become more forgiving and less restrictive.  Each genre’s gate can be opened to allow fragments of literary fiction to run rampant though-out any composition, not to cause destruction or harm to the story’s carefully constructed foundation, but to enhance and strengthen it.

Julia Alvarez, in her post script at the end of In the Time of Butterflies”,  considered to be historical fiction, says A novel is not, after all, a historical document, but a way to travel through the human heart.  She later added to this in her 2019 updated Author’s Note: Stories operate in such indirect and invisible ways that often we come out of a story or poem that has moved us as a different person than before we started reading. Novels are not polemical arguments, mobilizing people with ideology and propaganda. Instead they work one imagination at a time, rooting conviction in the heart, stirring us deeply and thereby bringing about a more profound and lasting transformation. The muscles of compassion we exercise as readers are, after all, the same ones that motivate us to change the world.

And so, Literary Fiction to me is not too dark or depressing or difficult to define. It does not need to be an island all by itself; isolated and alone, restricted to its own solitary lane within literature. Rather, Literary Fiction and its corresponding introspective examination of our humanness have earned a place within all genres wherever and whenever there is a profound or transformative message or idea to convey, share or question. Like each musical score in a grand classical composition, performed by 50 separate instruments, each one majestic by itself but spectacular when blended together to culminate in one elaborate and powerful symphonic masterpiece that stirs, lifts or transforms us, the literary fiction experience is about so much more than it is  by itself.

Literary Fiction is about more than the score paper upon which the notes are written, or the recipe card we set up and follow, or the temporary ripples in a pond. It is about the way its contemplative and omniscient message becomes the catalyst to awaken, impact and incentivize us, and how that experience continues to stir and transform us- that adds real depth and interest to what we create….. what we write, what we read and ultimately how we live.\

To note: This was completely created artistically by the author without any AI help

Turning Points and the Direction of our Stories

Apr26

All successful stories should contain multiple turning points at each section of the narrative, with the most substantial turning point located at the tip of the rising action, otherwise known as the story’s climax or the point of no return.  Resting beneath that point are the turning points in each of the second largest sections – the acts, followed by those in each chapter beneath and finally at the smallest sections on the bottom- within each scene. The turning point size and importance diminish relative to each smaller section, lining up beneath one another like Russian resting dolls or steps on a ladder. 

Each turning point has the potential to change the narrative direction, to either draw the protagonist forward toward her goal or desire, or conversely, to push her away toward her story’s antagonist or the doom awaiting her, even if that doom is self-made…the one she may have created for herself.  Without turning points, our characters remain flat, unremarkable and stuck, without any growth or transformation.

In our own lives, we as the protagonists of our life stories, wind our way across the peaks and valleys we create for ourselves in addition to those created for us. We face opportunity and risks, we find hope and we encounter despair as we stumble around and over roadblocks, sometimes running head first into wind gusts so strong we feel momentarily helpless, ready to turn back or give up. Occasionally; however, we reevaluate and change direction as we reassess, or learn from the consequences of our decisions or we awaken to a glaring truth to which we were previously blind.  These opportunities and road blocks make up the turning points of our lives, the crossroads where we make decisions or take actions that move our story in some direction.

It is important in the stories we create to include turning points that impact our entire story, that change the story direction, or impact the character in some profound way, whether the actions are loud and thunderous or as quiet as tears sliding silently down a child’s cheek. Although our characters will have various moments throughout their story to make decisions, form opinions, or become impacted by situations and unfolding events, it is only those moments that  affect the  full story  that we would consider to be turning points.  If what happens alters the story’s path, or prevents the character from going back to her original status quo, or if it enlightens or transforms her through an epiphany or moment of discovery, it is a turning point. Conversely, if what happened does not alter the overall story it would merely be something that happened.

Jamie Gold, in her article on Turning Points, distinguishes between events that are and are not turning points, describing it this way:  the triggering event in a scene—big or small, loud or quiet—doesn’t determine whether it’s a turning point. What makes the difference is if the response or the immediate results indicate significant story-sized change beyond just this scene and the next, and beyond just the normal cause-and-effect chain that links scenes together in stories,

Building on this idea, Courtney Carpenter, in her June 2012 article; Writers Digest; Scene Structure; How to write Turning points, adds ;  Turning points can occur without direct confrontation. A turning point scene might be wholly internal, as when it leads up to a character making an important decision or coming to see the truth about a situation without necessarily voicing that awareness.

Your turning point scene—and it must be a scene, not a summary—can show this change in the character’s life or consciousness through thoughts, action, or dialogue. But it must grow naturally out of what comes before so that the turning point is credible.

We identify turning points in our lives as a crossroad, the moment of truth, a milestone, the climax, an important juncture, the culmination, a critical moment, the point of no return, a pivotal moment, a hinge or transition.  Despite the label we give it; however, and whether that moment is large or small, loud or quiet, black or white, the impact that moment makes on our overall story’s outcome is monumental,  our life forever changed because of it. 

Sue Mell says in her July 2022 Writer’s  Digest : 5 tips for Writing and structuring effective turning points for your characters: A turning point is just that: a left turn here, a right there, a bit of round and round, until something gives way to change—or a stance against it.

One example of a well known literary turning point is when in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird,  the protagonist narrator Scout Finch, observes her father/lawyer Atticus Finch, defend Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of rape. This turning point propels Scout to confront the harsh realities of her world, forcing her to face the deeply ingrained narrow-mindedness and injustices that saturate her world, serving as a trigger for Scout’s moral awakening, consequently reshaping her beliefs as she maneuvers through the convoluted pot holes of the human condition. That turning point is where she learns the true meaning of kindness and open mindedness toward others. It is her point of no return.

Two other examples of famous turning points include when in Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games, the protagonist’s sister Prim, is selected for Tribute, and the protagonist, Katniss voluntarily replaces Prim in order to save her, forever changing Katniss’s life direction, and similarly, when in L. Frank Buam’s Wizard of Oz, the protagonist Dorothy discovers that the wonderful  and mysterious wizard of Oz is nothing more than an ordinary man who does not have the power to grant her  wishes, that the true power she sought was hiding within her own heart and will all along.  

How many times in our own lives have we made a life- altering decision we later wish we made differently, or engaged in a  life- changing behavior we wish we could erase, or said something we deeply regret? Or we observed an act that permanently changed our world view- all of which impacted the direction of our overall life story.  If only, we could turn back time, rewind or erase that moment, and reverse what we did or what we observed or what we heard.  If only….. Maybe things would have turned out differently? Better?  Or on the other hand, what about the opportunity we took that led us to the good fortune we have now?  The decision we made that led us to the people in our lives-that were meant to be there; the places where we decided to hitch our tent and call home?  The family we grew?  The lifestyle we achieved for which we worked so hard and now get to reap the benefits of the seeds we once sowed. 

So many turning points with so many potential directions to which they could take us, so many different possible endings to our story.  It is these turning points of our fictional stories and in our real lives that shape who our characters become and where they end up, that shape who we become, that map out our overall life narrative, and determine our characters’ and our own ultimate fate that awaits us in the final sentence of the last paragraph on the last page of the last chapter of our story.  All because of those turning points that changed the direction of our story.