Friday the 13th is here and I hope you haven’t switched bodies with anyone or been chased by anyone wearing a hockey mask. Today is a day of superstition and thoughts about what happens when you walk under a ladder. Different cultures have different days synonymous with bad luck.
This is the one day when we can blame any mishaps, accidents, or circumstances on a number. There are people who’ve study correlations of this day but there’s no solid evidence that this day creates bad luck. In fact, I know some people who’ve taken this day and turned it around. They believe that it brings them good luck.
Whether you think today is good or bad, there is one common thread. As humans, we have a natural tendency to ask why. We seek out answers. We create narratives in our minds to explain why something happened. This has happened throughout the beginning of our existence.
Throughout history cultures passed their beliefs through storing telling. Oral traditions turned into written word. Writers played a part in preserving, sharing, and recording their cultures. Things that people do around us seep their way into our books. We also pick up the characteristics of people in specific areas when we set them in locations. Dialogue, dress, manners, and phrases make their way onto the pages.
Readers know when a character is out of town based because we make them sound, dress, and talk differently than those around them. Where are the characters in your story? Have you thought about all the details of them, including how they talk because of where they grew up?
This is all part of the writing process that make them more unique, and more grounded for our readers. Details are what our audience hold onto and remember. Let’s spend today thinking about all the details of our characters instead of waiting for bad or good luck to happen. I know another author who talks about creating your own luck. The only to do that is to take action and not wait for circumstances to happen. Sometimes, the only way to make a day better is to change our luck because no one is going to do it for us.
Write for 5-10 minutes to give your characters life. You can even write about their day, if that will help you flush out the way they speak. Remember, if you don’t like what’s happening in your day, change it. Do one thing that will make your day better.
My posts are Monday through Friday.
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