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First things first ... I hope you’re okay. I hope you’re safe. If you’ve been personally affected by the devastation, or if you’re having a difficult time coping with the news of it all, my thoughts are with you. I hope you’re somehow able to find a little bit of peace in your days.
*sets a cuppa down on the table for you, then sits down and cradles a mug of cocoa in my hands*
With everything going on in the world, it’s difficult to know how to begin the rest of this letter.
There’s always something happening, of course. We don't always hear about it because it's considered less (or not at all) newsworthy, but it happens regardless. Some days it feels like the entire world is cloaked in sadness.
I find it difficult at times to create in an environment like that, but then I see something like this tweet by the writer Hafsah Faizal:
“Friends, the world is a mess, and you're probably wondering "what's the point of creating anymore?", but please, please keep going. <3 I wonder this, too. But you are important. Your art, your stories, your craft—those are important, too. It keeps us all going.”
The original tweet, and her Twitter, can be found here.
At heart, even when that heart is bruised, I believe in this: that creation is an act of love and hope and intention that the world sorely needs. As a writer, one of the strongest acts of activism I can undertake is writing about the world as I see it on the good days, and hope to eventually see more of on the dark days.
All that being said, as a writer of contemporary fiction, I’m sometimes conflicted as to how to go about this and still write nuanced, realistic characters.
This has been on my mind for a while, but I started thinking about it more actively the other day, when I heard about Constable Frank Deschenes, an RCMP officer who was killed while changing someone’s tire. Recently, he’d been trying to raise awareness in drivers about slowing down and giving stopped emergency vehicles a wide berth on the highway.
Seems like common sense, doesn’t it? And yet, from the way I see people driving every day, and from tragedies like this, I realize it’s obviously not. Not enough, anyway.
Discrimination of all kinds will always frustrate me, but I’m also passionate about things like:
- not talking on the phone while driving
- picking up your dog’s poop
- recycling paper rather than tossing it in the trash
- not inflicting secondhand smoke on the people around you without their consent
- saving endangered species
- not hunting for sport
- homeschooling being a valid educational alternative for many families
Big things, little things ... they all matter to me, but I’m aware that not everyone shares my exact views. How, then, does this translate to my writing?
Do I make every character (main, supporting, and walk-on) share my views? Do I have the occasional character who throws paper in the trash without a thought? Does every one of my characters avoid talking on the phone while driving? Do they all give emergency vehicles plenty of breathing room on the highway?
Here are some of the options ...
It could just be the antagonist who holds opposing views.
I could avoid having anyone with opposing views unless it’s absolutely essential for the plot.
I could have these negative traits turn up occasionally but have another character call the person out on them.
My mind is full of “yes, but” when it comes to this. “Yes, but that could seem cartooney. Yes, but that’s not really realistic. Yes, but that feels overly pointed.”
I’m still figuring out the nuances of my own personal approach, but I’m feeling a call to be strong, to be firm, to write about the kind of world I want to inhabit as though it already exists - because it does, on some days, in some moments.
I’m not always able to overcome my anxiety or introversion to speak out on social media or in other public spaces (and if I spoke out about everything that made me angry or made me want to cry, I’d be doing nothing but that on social media) ... but writing stories about that world, about people I’d love to know, is something I can and will do.
What will this look like for me?
Some stories will accord totally with how I’d like the world to be.
Others will have one or two characters who act out of alignment with my views.
Others will have major plot points concerning these views.
I’m going to take it story-by-story, but I’m not prepared to have legions of characters acting differently than I would solely for the sake of realism. That’s something I know for sure. That’s a foundation I can build on.
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A writing prompt just for you ...
Who or what does your character stand for? How do they stand up for this cause, in big and/or little ways?
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Wherever you're at right now, I hope you're safe and well. If you're able to, I also hope you're finding time to write, to be creative. The world needs that gift, whenever and however you're ready to give it.
Happy writing, creative soul!
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