My cousin and I have been talking about a vacation that she and her mother and our aunt and my beloved and I (four women, one guy, and his golf clubs) are taking. In the process, we've swapped a couple of photos. When she and I were this age, people thought we were twins. We know my brother and both of hers, and she and I are both almost positive we know which of us is which--but I distinctly remember wearing the coat that she's wearing. Weird, although we may have swapped.
And how does this pertain to writing? Look at those boys. They're adolescents, fully personality-ridden, one leaning into the air, another an older brother, covering his younger, taking over at the handlebars, and the last, a cousin, clinging, white-knuckled, but all on the verge of racing into the parent taking the pic. We two girls are so young we're just kind of grinning. We're not so comfortable in our personalities yet--passively sitting, not willing to state who we are with a pose. Someone just set us on the horsies, and we're staying put.
We're characters without characterization yet. (Sorry to my sister/cousin if you see this. I could be wrong! And since you were so quiet and "ladylike"--and I was so not--I'm sure everyone who knew us, knew us apart, even then!)
Gotta go fill up a character with some characterization.
No comments:
Post a Comment