I had a wonderful vacation, but I’m so glad to be back home.
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| Taken with my cell phone and doesn’t quite capture all her cuteness. |
We started our vacation with my cousin’s wedding, where our daughter was the flower girl. McKenna was a ridiculously good flower girl. Seriously, we should hire that girl out. Not only was she darling in her dress, but she really dedicated herself to her role. She’s been practicing around here with ripped up Kleenex and her Easter basket, and she “studied” her flower girl book on the drive, so it was no surprise when she performed flawlessly. She stood still for the ceremony and didn’t pick her nose or burst into tears, like I’d been needlessly worried about.
But being on the road for 9 days with a handful of a 1-year-old is no easy task. Especially when he’s pretty sure that all the sand on the beach was put there for him to eat. And same with all the gravel and dirt in our campsite. We spent a lot of time fishing grit out of his mouth. And wiping off his pacifier, which he now throws when he’s mad at us. Sigh.
Being around him, however, clarified something I’ve known about building conflict within characters, but something I wasn’t sure how to illustrate.
The pacifier is a very important object to Connor.
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A very close second is me. The guy is in a serious mommy phase.
Though you wouldn’t know it by how long it took me to find a picture of the two of us together. Good grief.
Anyway.
Connor’s love of the pacifier and me are most obvious when he’s tired. And on vacation, the poor guy was tired a lot. One night – when it turned out that he wasn’t just cranky from travel, he was also cutting 2 new teeth – I saw him do something that has changed how I view character-building.
It was late at night (for Connor) and I was trying to get ready for bed. When I came out of the bathroom, Connor ceased his fit throwing and came barreling for me. Then my husband called out, “Hey, Connor, I have your pacifier.” Connor turned and saw my husband holding it and took a couple steps toward him. But then he seemed to remember that I was the other direction, and he turned and took a couple steps toward me.
It reminded me that we should be doing this with our main characters. (And why stop there? Why not build it in to another character in your cast too?) Your main character should love multiple things because that is one of the best ways to build internal conflict. Especially when achieving or acquiring one thing might mean (or does mean) losing the other.
Say your main character’s parents hate the guy she’s with; they think he’s “beneath her” or something. It’s easier if your main character doesn’t like her parents or doesn’t respect them. What would ratchet up that conflict would be if she loves her parents and feels like they’ve always provided her with wise counsel. What’s a girl to do now? Build a life with the only guy she’s ever loved, or ignore the questionable advice of her wise parents?
In our hotel that night, Connor eventually chose me and then I carried him to where his pacifier was, so he got us both. Maybe that works out for your character too. Maybe she gets everything she wanted in a way she never could have foreseen (Breaking Dawn – whatever you may think of the Twilight saga – is a great example of this). Or maybe your character has to give up something permanently. You can still pull a satisfying ending out of that.
Does your character have something (or even better, a couple somethings) that he or she cherishes? What are they?
Does your character have something (or even better, a couple somethings) that he or she cherishes? What are they?
Hope you all have a wonderful Monday! Next week we’ll start up writing prompts again – can’t wait!