a while back, i bought a book on character traits. it was written by a psychologist specifically for writers who are crafting their heroes and heroines. after all, your characters have to be three dimensional enough to be memorable - and the general reading public won't take you seriously if suddenly Miss Vidalia Theresa Jones does something less than true of her personality.
frankly, i haven't used it. frankly, i haven't written much, but thumbing through it, i came upon life stages. aha! yeah, that was me in my twenties, and that was me in my thirties. thirty, by the way, was a traumatic birthday. it meant i was old. no longer youthful. and i had the audacity at that point to look back over what seemed then to be a long, long life and moan - i haven't accomplished anything!...as if there were no more time for accomplishments.
what utter bull. at thirty, we haven't even grown up, yet - or at least, most of us haven't.
that's not to say we don't have a kid in us at forty or older. and i have to tell you, the forties have been nothing short of great and full of discovery. the last few years have been the best of my life. i found the room and freedom to grow and choose.
perhaps it's somewhere between thirty-five and ninety-five we begin to get in touch with who we really are. there is so much to be explored and experienced that i don't think we fit neatly into a subtitle of characterizations. we're prone to change at any given time. personal paradigms are detonated and blown off the face of who we're expected to be.
so people can change. for instance, Miss Vidalia Theresa Jones, who on the surface appears to be a narcissistic, self proclaimed prophet of God, is actually full of self-doubts and is reaching for something that gives her confidence. and when she finds it, she may just step out of that little box someone had tape-gunned her into and commit a totally out of character act - because she has found who she really is.
man, this makes no sense, does it?
i simply had to write.
6 comments:
Of course this makes total sense. Those of us that are far beyond the 30 mark can look back and see how young that was and how much our thinking has changed since. Maturity often puts things in perspective, if that is what we are wanting and if we let it. Once things are in perspective, we often do change. Although we may want to be younger in body, I doubt most of us want to be younger in mind and go to what we went through before. Of course there are people that, for whatever reason, continue on without learning those lessons.
We all know them. I think our childhood colors a lot of who we are and we have to recognize that to change and be who we want to be. It takes work to change. We have to recognize that we can, we have to want to, and then we have to do the work. Not everyone can or will. But for those that do, it is very rewarding. It is a gift you give yourself. No one else can give it to you. -Margo
ok. im back....while my friend was here, i went into a web-site called realage.com, after answering the questions, truthfully, it turned out my real age to be 94.0 thats what they predicted...holy cow, not a happy thought being in rotten condition now!!!!! try it, u will hate it too.....xxxx roberta
I think every writer draws on their own experiences too. But that's interesting that someone has written a book to help round out personalities...LOL...Sandi
I think there is more of a kid in me now then when I was a kid and I like it. Paula
This makes sense, I have been through many stages of discovery. But I must say at my current age (55 next month) I think I have finally settled down and lost some of the "kid" in me.............Stormie
right, it makes no sense....ladybug
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