Characters of Our Own Stories

Time is precious to everyone, even to writers.  We must spend our time wisely when writing, researching, reading, planning, marketing, scheduling, networking, socializing, and so forth and so on … to get the job done.  There must be a balance maintained between career, friends and family – like every other career out there.  So, it’s important to guard that time, and use wisdom when planning our everyday events, much in the same way that we must choose the pacing, development and timeline of our characters in the stories we write.

Yesterday was a great example of time well spent for the character of “me”.  I was joined by a few close friends and my mother-in-law in Milledgeville, Georgia to promote my latest novel, “Milledgeville Misfit”.  I had an adventurous time.  After being isolated for several days, it felt great to be outdoors, laughing in fellowship, talking, catching up on gossip, exploring the rich history and culture of the Antebellum South, listening to the ghostly tales of a haunted city, reverencing those whose time has come and gone, meeting new fans face to face, and making new friends.  Oh, and it didn’t hurt that I sold a few books too.  The character of “Me” had a great day!

My piece of inspiration and advice today for my fellow writers and friends is this:  Don’t forget to live your life.  I know how easy it is to get lost into the fictional worlds we create out of our imaginations and write into our manuscripts, but we can’t ignore the world that was created for us.  We are the characters of a bigger story. We are our own editors. How interesting is your character?  Would you like to read “you” in a book?  If you don’t like your storyline thus far, then begin to change it. 

I did so much living yesterday, I think I’ll take a good nap today and relive some of it in my dreams.

Till next time,

~T.L. Gray