Your Life is a Storybook: Be the Mysterious Stranger

There is no fairy tale character as complicated and interesting as you. Be assured of that. And in some ways, this is a good thing. Otherwise, we might never learn what happens to a protagonist, because she's too busy thinking about life’s existential questions (WICKED by Gregory Macquire, anyone?). Plus, a story reveals truths through a variety of mediums – not just through the protagonist. Hopefully, if a story is written well, we can detect a corner of ourselves in all of the characters we encounter.

So this week, why not explore what it means to bring out an inner character who is neither protagonist, adventurer, hero nor heroine? It’s the Christmas season - a season for friendship among strangers - so I propose we be the mysterious stranger.

Be the Mysterious Stranger

You know the one: the impish man shrouded in tattered clothes and memory, the mild-mannered dwarf who lives in a tree, the talking dove eager to show the way over the mountain … let’s be open to the unexpected, and try to see total strangers as an opportunity for an adventure. 

More to the point, as supporting characters, we get to embrace the weird.

Need some ideas? Coming right up!

Photo creds: Foter.com

And for those of you keeping up with my writer life, I'll bet you're wondering whether I won NaNoWriMo, eh?

I didn't.

BUT, I wrote 30,000 words and ten chapters of my new novel, which isn't bad for a first try, right? THE MIDWAYS is going great with a slight catastrophe in that I lost chapter 2 (I have seriously no clue how to get it back ... Curse you, Scrivener!). Additionally, I have heard from almost all of my beta readers for TESS AND THE TRINKET, and will commence integrating their suggestions in January! The goal is to pitch in the spring, come hell or high water. I don't plan on dwelling on the the first novel if it doesn't have the chops.

In other other news, the end of December will bring a video book review of not one but two books: WATERFALL and CASCADE, both from a RIVER OF TIME series which, as I have mentioned, I am totally addicted to. Be on the look out for that video in which I wrestle with how much I love this time travel romance!

Happy Advent and much love.

Ttfn,

Emily