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Good writers understand that tomorrow every person on earth will change. Great and tiny things happen to all of us which spark change. This continues until death.
Since change happens to everyone on this earth, it should happen in your stories.
No person can live without change, though we try to resist it.
Emerson said that habits come as cobwebs, and then develop into chains. These are wise words. Yet, though our habits turn to steel, we can’t avoid change.
Our characters must be habitually consistent in order to be believable, but still must change, sometimes drastically, to build interest. It’s a lot like life.
Our actions, words, thoughts, health, body and mind all force life-changes we never anticipate. A good writer’s characters change in order to add muscle to the plot.
Here are two extreme examples of unanticipated change (both of which are true): 1. A typically mild-mannered Interstate driver grows angry and gestures obscenely. Two minutes later, he is shot to death as a result. 2. A person says hello to a stranger in a big-city elevator. Five years later, both are millionaires as a consequence of this chance meeting.
The fact that you are reading this will change you in some way. We are all stones in the great rock-polishing machine of life, and as we spin we are abraded.
Rocks composed of tough material emerge from a polishing machine looking like jewels. As will some of your characters. By contrast, soft rocks in the polisher are eventually ground to dust. As are some characters.
As in real life, depending on our composition, the daily grind makes us shine or grinds us to dust.
A writer’s duty is to move his characters and his readers to thought or emotion, to cause them to change—to make them feel something. The writer who does this succeeds.
Words are the brushes we use to paint our portraits, spark change and create emotion: His face was the color and texture of his saddle. Rivers of sweat washed dust into his grizzled beard. He dismounted, but before his feet hit sand, the heavy colt was in his hand. His granite-gray eyes locked onto mine. His lips twitched into a smile.
If you visualized nothing, or felt nothing from the preceding 45 words, I have wasted my time and yours. If I succeeded, you should imagine even more about this character than I revealed. You should feel a little fear and you should want to read more.
Good writers always look for believable ways to spark change in their characters. If nothing changes, how can you have a story? For that matter, if nothing changes, how can life exist?
Writing is a lot like life, except that usually it’s a little more severe, but not always. How’s that for ambiguous precision?
MARTY RICKARD BIO
Marty RicKard holds a BS degree in journalism from the University of Southern Mississippi . He also has a Masters Degree in photography. Marty was a technical writer for White Motor Company, and page one editor for four Iowa daily papers. He owned New Sharon Star, where he was twice named Iowa Master Columnist. For ten years, Marty’s regular column appeared in the Professional Photographer magazine. In addition to his writing credits, Marty has won numerous photography awards and has lectured in 48 states. He is a regular columnist for Lens Magazine, and a full-time writer of fiction and poetry. He has published three books. He is an amusing and inspirational speaker.
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