Reading is the best kind of sitting still activity, because your mind is still moving.
3 Ways to Build Your Character(s)
If you’re a writer, creating lovable characters is a key element to helping your audience enter into your story. If you’re not a writer, but you’re a reader, you know the pleasure and delight of characters who come alive to you and become friends. If you’re neither a writer nor a reader, I’m so sorry.
So how do you create real-seeming people out of thin air?
One option is to write an exact, precise character description of someone you know and change the name: Rob to Bob, Larry to Harry, Holly to Molly. Writing about a person you have a relationship with is an excellent way to capture personality—but if you’re writing about people who read your stuff, either be careful what you say, or be very clever with your renaming (grumpy old next door neighbor becomes 17-year-old bagger at the local supermarket).
Another frequently used method is to sketch a few attributes into a character, and let them finish the development themselves. As the story develops and you throw your heroine into disastrous situations, see . . .
Read MoreExpressway-Turned-Parking-Lot
There are few places where people display their true nature, whether good or bad, as readily as in Chicago traffic. Construction, especially, is the great equalizer of society. It doesn’t matter if you’re driving a Tesla or a Yugo—everybody gets treated the same.
After Chicago’s astonishingly chilly winter, the roads look like an m&m cookie that some kid picked all the m&m’s out of. If you steer to dodge one pothole, you’ll hit another. To make up for this, the city of Chicago pulled up several miles of the main tollroad in and out of the city, leaving only one lane in both directions. In a city that hosts hundreds of thousands of commuters every day, this has major consequences.
Curtis (he’s very wonderful) and I left the city last Friday in the middle of rush hour. In the course of the evening, our two hour drive turned into a three-and-a-half hour drive. We sat in stop and go traffic for what felt like a year . . .
Read MoreLess Words—Greater Impact
I occasionally have the privilege to sit in classes taught by people who have decades more experience at writing and marketing than I do—and it’s always a privilege to learn from them. Today’s course was given by a man who works for a radio station in New Jersey. Here are a few of his key lessons:
Good writing begins in the heart, and reaches the heart.
Noble themes lead to noble words.
To be a better writer, be a better reader.
Be less boring—leave out filler words, predictable phrases, and unsubstantiated claims.
Write to help your reader grow.
People’s brains are fast. Let them fill in their own details.
Cut your adjectives, double your verbs.
Less words equal greater impact.
Don’t mistake style for substance.
Write to your audience like you’re sitting at a table in Starbucks over a latte.
Build word pictures—don’t just spew a bunch of details.
Love is Patient, Love is Kind . . .
Before I married Curtis (he’s very wonderful), I had no idea that two of the most dramatic points of tension in our relationship would be window blinds and lamps.
You see, I hate to be tired. Most people do, really. But I also love to wake up early—well, after the initial misery of waking up early. And one of my favorite things to do as soon as I wake up is draw up the blinds in our bedroom and look out at the pale blue pre-sunrise sky. Or, after doing the other bits of my morning routine, I love to go back into the bedroom and yank up the blinds quickly, pairing the crisp zippp with the chaos of light instantly flooding the dark room.
And that’s where the problem begins.
Curtis (yes, the wonderful one) also hates to be tired. But in life’s game of drawing straws, he drew the “night person” straw. His brain is kicking into gear at 10 p.m., two hours after mine has ceased to function reasonably. So, every morning when I tear the blinds up from the ground and the sunlight comes spilling in, I’m wreaking havoc . . .
Read MoreCharacter and Open Doors
In All the Places to Go John Ortberg writes on discerning the will of God. He says,
God’s primary will for your life is not the achievements you accrue; it’s the person you become. God’s primary will for your life is not what job you ought to take; it’s not primarily situational or circumstantial. It’s not mainly the city where you live or whether you get married or what house you ought to be in. God’s primary will for your life is that you become a magnificent person in his image, somebody with the character of Jesus. That is God’s main will for your life. No circumstance can prevent that.
We all understand that, especially parents. If you’re a parent, would you want the kind of kids you have to tell their whole lives, “Wear these clothes. Take these classes. Go to that school. Apply for this job. Marry that person. Purchase this house,” and you always have them do exactly what you tell them as long as they live? (“No” is the correct answer here. No, you wouldn’t want that.)
Why? Because your main goal is not for them to be little robots that carry out instructions; your goal is that they become people of great character and judgment. The only way for them to do that is to make lots and lots of decisions. Of course, that means they’ll make a lot of the wrong decisions. That becomes a primary way they learn.
Very often God’s will for you will be “I want you to decide,” because decision making is an indispensable part of character formation. God is primarily in the character-forming business, not the circumstance-shaping business.
And God is in the open-door business. This means a new way of looking at God. He prefers yes to no. He loves adventure and opportunity. This means a new way of looking at life. I do not have to be afraid of failure. I do not have to live in fear over circumstance. Each moment is an opportunity to look for a door that opens up into God and his presence.
This means a new way of looking at myself. I am no longer limited by my smallness and weakness. The God who opens the door to me is also the God who knows how small and weak I am.
Four Reasons for Sacrifice
There are a few key reasons people make sacrifices:
Someone is making me. “You may not go outside and play until you’ve cleaned your room.”
There’s something in it for me. “If you don’t eat ice cream for a month, I’ll give you a hundred dollars.”
I want to help someone else. “I’ll give you half my sandwich so you don’t have to be hungry.”
I believe in the cause. “I’ll stand outside in the cold in front of the grocery store and picket because I think it’s important for people to know the injustice of the system.”
Believing in a cause or vision doesn’t always result in radical behavior, yet it does often require sacrifice. But when you’re working toward something that you believe in, the sacrifice is always worth it.
Your Two Lists
Everyone (you and I definitely included) has at least two very specific, very opposite lists—you likely haven’t written the lists down, but they’re probably in your head.
The first list, the list we grumble about and try to avoid, is a list of activities that take our energy. Often and unfortunately, the items on this list are non-negotiable. They take time and effort, and though maybe they’re not essential, doing them certainly improves quality of life (think cleaning the bathroom and taking out the trash).
The second list, the list we spend time dreaming about and rushing to do, is a list of activities that give us energy. Most of the time, the things on this list aren’t exactly crucial (crucial = eating, sleeping) to everyday existence. But time breezes by when you’re doing them, and they always result in increased . . .
Read MoreA Night at the Art Institute
Thursday nights the Art Institute of Chicago is free to residents of Illinois. In an attempt to become more cultured I’ve started to take advantage of this perk. According to the website, there are nearly 300,000 works of art “in fields ranging from Chinese bronzes to contemporary design and from textiles to installation art.” Based on the rest of my research, it’s somewhere around a million square feet—but for some odd reason, sources are cagey on that one.
As you know, I really love to watch people and then categorize them. And there are lots of fascinating types of people at an art museum.
Stop and Stare: Their family members go through an entire wing in the time . . .
Read MoreTripping on a Pothole Pt. 2
I love hearing from anyone who is faithful and kind enough to read my blog. After Tripping on a Pothole, I heard from lots of you.
No, I’m not injured. No, I don’t think I’ll sue the city for negligence. The suit wouldn’t take anyways, as one of you says, “I’m pretty sure the city thinks it’s not a real pothole unless they can’t see the top of your head if you’re standing in it.”
In addition to your kind and caring words, I also received a photo of a pothole on the Chicago bike path. The city had the decency to mark this one—which they did with great zeal.
Hm.