Shiny Objects

I used to have chubby fingers.  Compared to my mom, I still have chubby fingers.  I think she wears a size four on her ring finger.  I don't even think a size four would fit on my pinky.  My parents used to tell me not to crack my knuckles because it would give me fat fingers, but I didn't listen.  I wanted big fingers (for whatever reason--I was a strange kid).  Well, recently I've lost a lot of weight, and as a result, the vast majority of my rings don't fit anymore.  I'm too lazy/broke to go get them resized, and that's okay, because I really don't wear rings that often anyway.  Of the three women from my family of origin, I'm the least sparkly one.  I always wear a thin rose gold band ring on my left middle finger as a reminder that my life doesn't belong to me (it belongs to God), but other than that the only ring I wear often is my mood ring.

I'm 31 years old.  Even if I don't look my age (someone told me the other day that they thought I was about 23...nice!  I'll take it!), I've made a few age appropriate fashion sacrifices.  I've given up my graphic tees and generic Converses.  But I refuse to give up the mood ring because I like it.  And recently, I've been wearing the mood ring every time I remember to put it on (which is about 4 days out of the week--I'm forgetful).  The reason for this (besides the obvious awesomeness of wearing a mood ring) is because a mood ring plays a small role in the book I'm currently trying to write, and I want the mood ring with me for inspiration and such.

I am sad to say that the mood ring I wear is not the one that originally inspired my story.  I have misplaced/lost that particular mood ring.  It makes me sad because this mood ring had a really cool wide band that had swirlies of color that reminded me of the Elvin language on the One Ring from LOTR.  I liked to put this ring over the air vent in my car to make it change all sorts of different colors.  One day, as I was doing this, I came up with a concept for a story.

This is not the first time I've come up with a story idea from a piece of jewelry, and I'm fairly sure it won't be the last. 

In fact, my first book would have never existed if I didn't have chubby fingers. 

One Christmas, my dad gave me this gaudy fake men's ring that came as "surprise" in one of those "cheap crap catalogue" orders.  He said he was giving it to me because it was too small for him, but too big for anyone else in the family.  And sure enough, the ring fit me perfectly.  And I liked it.  I liked it a lot.

Now, this ring was originally goldtone.  In a few weeks, the goldtone faded to silvertone.  A few weeks later, the silvertone began chipping off and my finger started turning green.  The stones in it were obviously glass, but that didn't matter.  Even though the stones were glass, they were arranged in a way that intrigued me.  There was one large round clear stone in the center, surrounded by a diamond shape of fake rubies.  You know what?  I'll just post a photo because that's easier:

I think was 12 when my dad gave me that ring (I remember wearing it in my sixth grade class, but my memory could be faulty).  As much as the finish chipped and as much as it turned my finger green, I continued to wear it occasionally even into high school and college.  When I eventually dropped out of college (the first time around--I transferred to another school later and graduated), I still wore the ring a lot.  The design of the fake stones still intrigued me.

And one day when I was wearing the ring, I had a mental image of a goblin jumping out of a tree in a forest and stealing this ring from a girl.  That was the first scene I ever envisioned from what would become my first book.  I started writing it in those 2 years between colleges.  Over the years, A LOT of details changed--the stones in the design changed from "rubies" to "sapphires" and the ring itself was changed to a dagger, but I can honestly say that a piece of awful fake jewelry inspired my wonderful first book--and the sequels that I hope will follow it.

Even though I'm probably going to have horrible arthritis one day when I really do grow up, I don't think I'll regret popping my knuckles...

Has jewelry ever inspired you?

Fiction Friday: My Second Favorite Fictional Character of All Time

I would eventually like to branch out from the fictional character thing, but I'm not feeling particularly creative right now since my mind really doesn't want to write this blog.  My mind wants to be deeply, emotionally, intimately involved in the reading of Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, which I am only about a third of the way through.  In fact, I will have to be at work in less than two hours and would be spending every last second of that time reading, if I had not remembered that today was a blogging day.  And since I'm only two weeks into this blogging schedule thing, I figure I'd better try sticking with it for a while.

So my second favorite fictional character is someone who I very much wish were real.  I wish he were real, just ever so slightly taller, and not married...because of all the male fictional characters in the world, I would most want to be married to him. 

When most people watch or read Lord of the Rings, they're gushing over Aragorn or Orlando Bloom--I mean, Legolas.  They're talking about how dashing Faramir is, or how mischievously cute Pippin is.  There are even a few throwbacks to the late 90's who actually still think that Elijah Wood's FREAKISHLY GINORMOUS EYES are attractive.

Who do I find appealing from LOTR?  Who would I spend the rest of my life with, without hesitation?  I'll tell you who--Samwise Gamgee. 

Now, I don't have anything against Sean Astin (except maybe the fool he made of himself in "50 First Dates." You can't go from playing Samwise Gamgee to that!  Ugh!) The dude is a phenomenal actor who has played THREE of my favorite roles in all of filmdom.  Is filmdom a word?  Now it is.  He was Mikey, the main character in Goonies (GOONIES NEVER SAY DIE!).  He was Rudy (I can always appreciate a character who succeeds because he's too dumb to know that he can't possibly succeed).  He was Samwise Gamgee.  But I don't have a celeb crush on Mr. Astin.  He's a great actor, but my love for Samwise has nothing to do with him.  My love for Sam goes much, much deeper.

But in retrospect, I don't know how well a relationship with Samwise would work.  He's a hobbit, which would mean he's probably even shorter than I am...and I'm short.  He's also got hairy feet, which I could probably learn to tolerate.  Beyond that, though, is another problem.  I learned a while back that I don't really want to be with someone like Samwise.  I want to be like Samwise. 

And, okay, I want to be with him, too, but since that's not happening...

I could go on and on about Samwise's loyalty.  I could rant about how he almost drowned in order to follow Frodo, about how he killed the spider and followed Frodo even into an orc infested tower, about how he watched over Frodo in the darkness, sacrificing everything for his friend.  I could go on and on, but there's really only one thing I can say that would sum up who Samwise is.  There's only one quote from the book/film that comes to mind that is the essence of Samwise Gamgee, the reason I love him so much and aspire to be more like him.

As Frodo and Sam make their way up Mount Doom to destroy the Ring, Frodo's strength wanes.  He begins pitifully crawling forward, and Samwise reveals the depths of his loyalty for his friend.

I quote this from the book, The Return of the King by the incredible J. R. R. Tolkien:

"Sam looked at him and wept in his heart, though no tears came to his dry and stinging eyes.  'I said I'd carry him, if it broke my back,' he muttered, 'and I will!'
'Come, Mr. Frodo!' he cried. 'I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you and it as well.  So up you get!  Come on, Mr. Frodo, dear! Sam will give you a ride.  Just tell him where to go, and he'll go.'"

I'm honestly getting a little misty just reading that over again.  I can't let myself think too far ahead, or I will think of the Gray Havens, when Frodo boarded the ship which parted him from Sam.  I don't really have time for a full emotional breakdown at the moment.

Sam's loyalty.  That's what makes him such an unforgettable character.  He was given a charge to protect his friend, and he did not waver from it.  That's the kind of person I would like to be.  I'd like to be the kind of loyal friend who, when I cannot carry burdens, I simply carry my friends.  But...I am far more selfish than Samwise.

...maybe, since I can't be as much like him as I want to be, I can just hold out that someday I'll meet a nice little hobbit boy.  Just in case, I think I'll keep wearing ribbons in my hair, because Samwise seems to like that.

Rosie Cotton better watch her back.  That's all I'm saying.

Characters Welcome

I really like those USA television promos with the little "Characters Welcome" slogan. USA gets it. Good television shows don't do well because every single script is perfect. Even the best shows have bad episodes (except maybe Psych. Never saw a bad episode of Psych--but even that is because Shawn and Gus make me snortle). While good plots are very important, what really keeps people watching is the characters.

Plots are important, but I think characters are even more important. If you have a wonderful plot with amazing twists and turns, I'm probably not going to care too much about it unless you also have some amazing characters to experience that plot. I'm not going to relate to anything in the story unless I can relate to the characters. That relating can mean I understand where they're coming from and what they're dealing with because I've been there, or it can mean I want to know WHY they're acting the way they do in a certain situation, or it can mean I want to be more like them. However I relate to a character, I'm going to keep reading to figure out what's going to happen because I've made an emotional investment in the characters.

I'm looking back on some of my favorite fictional characters. At the top of the list is Meg Murray from "A Wrinkle in Time" and the other books in that series. I get her. In a lot of ways, I am her. I'm that awkward kid who gets frustrated with herself and others way too easily. I'm constantly struggling with the idea that I am not good enough, trying to balance it with the idea that I've been made in the image of God. Madeleine L'Engle struck gold when she found Meg. I know a lot of people who have said that they're just like her. If she can overcome the odds she had to face, then so can we. That's good writing.

Then there's my second favorite fictional character, Samwise Gamgee from LOTR. To me, this little hobbit is the embodiment of loyalty. He wouldn't leave Frodo. When he couldn't carry Frodo's burden, he carried him. I relate to Sam because I think I am a lot like him, but I want to be even more like him. I want to be that fiercely loyal friend. My emotional investment to him caused me to weep like a baby when I got to the end of the books and realized he would have to be separated from Frodo. It makes me a little teary eyed to think of it even now.

My third favorite fictional character is also someone I wish I could be more like. Lucy Pevensie from "The Chronicles of Narnia." I wish I could be as childlike as she is. Every time she has to leave Aslan, especially at the end of "Voyage of the Dawn Treader," I also get weepy.

Another of my favorite characters is Taran from "The Chronicles of Prydain." He's a boy and he's a little harder to understand than some of the other characters I love. I do understand him some. I do want to be like him in some ways (good characterization is usually pretty multifaceted). I also wonder what he's going to do next because I don't always understand why he acts the way he does. I want to see if he attains his dreams. I want to see if he gets the girl. I want to see what he learns through his journies.

It's the same sort of feeling I get when I read Harry Potter. I don't get why Harry acts the way he does. I don't know why he gets himself into certain predicaments, but it's interesting to see how he gets out of them. I want to see what happens to him. J. K. Rowling is very good at weaving elements through stories. Something that seems insignificant somewhere might be the very thing that ties everything else together. I like her writing, but it wouldn't be very good if she didn't also have all these amazing and interesting characters.

I've been thinking about my own characters. There's a few that are very much like me, and these have been the easiest for me to write. But right now I'm starting a new story and I think the main character is a lot like me, only I'm having a lot of trouble with her. I think the reason is because she's a lot like who I was when I was a teenager, only perhaps a little more down to earth (she has had more disappointment in life than I had ever had at that point in my life). She's closed. She doesn't let people in easily. I'm trying to write her, but she doesn't want to let me in enough to let me see how to write her. She has the potential to be someone amazing, and I want to show her that. Right now, though, she's uncomfortably awkward (I've finally become very comfortable with my awkwardness--read my socially awkward blog). She has one friend. She doesn't trust people. She's angry and bitter and extremely moody. She has a lot of good qualities, too, of course, but it's harder to see them because she doesn't like to show them.

I adore her, but she doesn't want to let me write her.

I know that sounds weird. I can't help the way I relate to my characters. Ever since a character named "Rain" entered my life and demanded that I write her the way she IS instead of the way I wanted her to be, I've been treating my characters with a lot more respect. If I expect them to live, then they're more likely to live.

But Rain didn't take over (and quite literally possess me for two weeks) immediately. I dreamt her up and thought she was someone quite weak and unimportant until one day she just spoke up and proclaimed her strength and vitality. Maybe it's the same thing with this other character. Maybe I need to give her some time.

I hope it doesn't take too long. I've got a plot (weak as it is at the moment), but without her and another character (who I am also having just a little bit of trouble with), the plot is pretty much useless. I want people to invest in her and my other characters. I want to make people care about what happens to her. At the moment, I don't think she WANTS other people to care. So that's where the conflict is. Sigh.

I think it's time to write letters to my characters again.