No squares have been wasted in the writing of this blog post.
I’m not big on New Years Eve or Day or the whole resolution thing. Why? It’s the middle of the school year, the middle of winter and…the calendar in my head begins in September — but that part is another story altogether.
A few years ago I did make a resolution that stuck. I resolved NOT to wait for anyone else to change the roll of toilet paper and finally to decide: under or over. And I did it. And still do. And the answer is: over.
But since this is a blog about women’s fiction and we write women’s fiction in some form or another, and because I am just itching to dive back into my novel to make changes and find that I miss my characters, I wondered…What Would My Characters’ Resolutions Be?
In THE GLASS WIVES my main character, Evie, is an adjunct college professor of United States history, so in her professional life I think she’d resolve to get a more permanent status by making herself as valuable as possible to her department. In her personal life I think Evie would resolve to start her own Bunco group since she’d been “replaced” when she couldn’t show up regularly. Or maybe she’d start a book club or a mah jong group. Anything that would be fun and get her into a new gaggle of friends. In her romantic life I think Evie would resolve to continue looking forward and not backward. I think the last would be the most difficult, but probably the most fun!
What would your characters’ resolutions be for the new year? And of course by new year I mean what ever year that would happen to be in your novel or your WIP or in your bank of bright, shiny ideas. No one knows your characters like you do. What might happen after THE END? What would he or she or they resolve to do?
Do tell.
And HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
Kitty, my first POV would be hoping for a good start to a new life in America. My second, Maggie, in her novel would hope for grandchildren, although she is a secret grandmother. My present, Elle, would hope to earn a living from her art work, but she needs to survive alone in the world. All three women were ‘born’ in the 1800’s, so no easy task for any of them!
Happy Toilet Roll Changing for 2012 😀
This is such an interesting post, because of course it’s so hard to let go of our characters after a book is out. Jordan, the main character in my new novel Sleeping Tigers, lived such a careful life before having breast cancer, that going through surgery makes her feel imperfect, like “a teacup with a chip in it,” as she says. She is terrified of having cancer again, but through the novel she learns to open herself up to new experiences as she reconnects with her drifter brother and tries to help him stop destroying himself. Reaching out to her brother makes Jordan take risks–and I would hope that, after the novel’s end, she would continue to do that, and follow her heart instead of plotting out each step of her life as she did before.
Such a fun and interesting post.
Gwen–form The Sweater Curse (2011)–resolves to find someone to help her. Hopefully that will happen soon.
Lyndi–from my WIP–hopes to have the courage to make her dreams come true.
An excellent idea for any time of the year when you’re trying to develop a character’s profile. Ask yourself, if it were New Year’s, what would their resolutions be? Think it would reveal a lot. Happy New Year, Amy! 2013–geez, seems rather ironic that publishing still moves at such as snail’s pace, when you can download a 300-page book in a matter of seconds! Anyway, I’m looking forward to reading The Glass Wives when it arrives.
In Surface and Shadow, my novel in progress, the main character, Lydia Caton, is a young wife and mother who feels like a nobody in the male-dominated 1970s until she gets involved in a search for the truth about a wealthy man’s suspicious death. Since finding answers to questions about the death is important to her, she’d resolve to locate more people who knew the man when he was alive and to uncover more documents to tell her the history of the man’s family. Lydia’s also concerned about a mentally retarded woman who she thinks is not being allowed to live up to her potential, so she’d resolve to find new opportunities for the woman, including a paying job.
Miss Amy Sue, I don’t believe you told me your book was getting published! Eeee! I’m so excited for you — msg me deets, girl!