Lost

Read an interesting article on the over use of cell phones as an indicator of depression. Well, yeah, I can see that. I really think I was battling depression and didn't even know it. For a year, I've allowed Facebook and Netflix to suck up all my time and energy. I avoided replying to social media, blogging and even, writing. I was just emotionally drained. Part of it can be attributed to over doing things when I first started writing. Back then, I loved doing all the things I needed to do to connect with readers and other writers.

I'm feeling more like my old self and hoping to jump back into things but more slowly this time. In the meantime, let's talk about Lost. Yep, one of my binge shows on Netflix was Lost. Of course, I am going to rationalize this time-sucker as research. Watching Lost has helped me reconnect with the whole characterization process. And I love it!

There is so much that goes into writing; character development, setting, teasing all five senses, active vs passive voice, and more. I remember first starting my journey as a writer and struggling just to make sentences that didn't all start with he or she. The more you conquer one writing foe, you have to move onto another. So, for the book I'm working on now, I'm trying to dive deeper into each of the main character's emotional psyche.

It's not enough to know their basic background; where they went to school, what religion they belonged to or even who their first romantic interest was. The lessons I'm learning from Lost is each character will have had an event or maybe two or three events that shape how they react to other events. It's one thing to say the character lost a loved one in a driving accident when he/she was a teen but how will they react when their own teenager wants to start driving? Will their reservations be a little higher, more exaggerated than the normal parent? All good questions but it does make one think.

This is not really a new revelation for me, but I think as we write more we sometimes tend to write by rote. We're so consumed with getting that next novel written and out that we start taking short cuts. So, no more short cuts, no more getting off the beaten path. Yep, I'm finding the trail back to good writing practices and in the process feeling less lost.