My eldest daughter just went to a fireside last night called A BRAND NEW YEAR, A Celebration For Latter-Day Saint Youth. On the flyer was this quotation from the For The Strength of the Youth Pamphlet,"The decisions you make now will determine much of what will follow during your life and throughout eternity." This just seemed to hit me...Bam!!! Like a hurricane head on! I applied this to writing for you all today. How you may ask? All the things that I have learned throughout my life I have put into my books! You as writers for fiction, non-fiction, whatever can do the same. Write down all of your life experiences (if you haven't already), big and small. Make it as long as you like, the longer the better and I'll tell you why? You can use this in your arsenal of character development! Draw your life experiences and even those of your children, family friends and spouse. Use this to make richer fuller characters that people can relate to. Now apply this quote to your own life and make yourself a richer fuller character "during this life and throughout eternity."
Have Fun, Be Creative, Look Fantastic! It's Your Time to Shine!!!
Mary Olsen
WOW MARY! I love it! It's a great quote! And interesting insight! thanks!
ReplyDeleteI love that pic, Mary. And thanks for the motivation. I agree, the decisions we make, not only in our lives, but in what we choose to write can have a great impact on ourselves and those around us. We, especially, as writers might be influencing many people with what we decide to write. I never take lightly the fact that I am writing for the youth. I try to make sure that I am writing characters that the youth can learn from. And you're right, we can definitely draw from our own lives to do this.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely true. Inspiration for our characters is all around us. It is just a matter of paying attention and remembering it. :)
ReplyDeleteAnother I have found to be true is that everything we learn comes forward too without having to force it. For example, I finally learned what showing not telling is in writing, I practiced it a little. Then the next time I started writing, the showing just happened, I didn't have to force it, it just came out. That's what happens with our life experiences too. They just start to surface without our conscious effort. Thanks for this post. I like the idea of writing down some of our life experiences to help bring them forward. But since we usually have no control over our stories, it will still be a surprise to us what gets used!! LOL
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post it is great! I recently read an article from the BYU educator and it talked about writing the things of your soul. Not just the fun stuff but the spiritual stuff to. When we do this they are inplanted in our memories, on paper, and written upon our hearts. I find that the more I do this the better I feel about writing. I am no writer and will never be known or published, but that is okay I enjoy other things, like writing family histories, for my family. I have already become better at that then I thought possible. Practice makes perfect and like you said you can draw from the everyday things... Thanks again for this wonderful post.
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