“… the heart of any story is its characters. They deserve to be every bit as polished and well-crafted as your plot.”

~ Jason Black

I KNOW I’ve been a little derelict in posting the past couple of weeks, but darned if that day job of mine hasn’t interfered with my avocation!!! Nevertheless, I’ve THOUGHT often about The Write Groove and wished that I could post telepathically. Just think how cool that would be! As I perused an idea here and another there, I could send the creative thoughts to the telepathy hotline and BAM the clever reflections would ZAP themselves into a unique post.

Enough fantasizing – back to the point ALREADY!

Okay, a day or two ago as I was working on my WIP, I decided the mother should be a single parent, but I didn’t want an ex-husband OR Disneyland daddy around to complicate the plot any more than it already was. Nor did I think a deadbeat dad was needed because even when fathers abdicate their roles and responsibilities, they are still a big part of their families’ lives because of the baggage they leave behind.

So, presto-change-o, I killed off the poor dad in a trucking accident thus making his wife a widow and his children fatherless, BUT it was NO FAULT OF HIS OWN! So sure, there would be other problems, but feeling UNloved and abandoned by the papa wouldn’t be one of them.

No sooner had I buried the poor guy when I decided: “No, I think the main character’s basically happy personality and fun sense of humor may be too dramatically affected by the death of her parent – even 4 years after the accident.”

This means when I tackle the work tomorrow, a resurrection will occur: Daddy will be back! Now that’s going to produce a different set of challenges, but right now he will be a good father who is on the road a lot. The mother will still be one focus of friction for the MC, and that may be exacerbated because Mom is forced to shoulder most of the parenting responsibilities.

But who knows? All that could change by chapter 15.

Oh, what a rush to have such control over people’s lives! Wahahahaha!