DON’T TAKE THE EASY WAY OUT!

Sometimes, life just doesn’t make sense.

That may be true in life, but not in books–at least not the ones I write!

My editor is a stickler for my characters doing what makes sense. She’ll send my manuscript  back with a note telling me that nobody would ever do that, such as going to the basement to investigate a mysterious sound, even though they are alone and the electricity’s off. We’ve all seen movie scenes where that exact thing happens. We all know it doesn’t make sense, but that’s where the character needs to go in order to let the movie continue.

The same is not true for books–at least not if you have my editor.

She won’t let me take the easy way out.  She makes me go back and add in enough information so that the readers understand why the character is not only motivated to do what we know isn’t such a good idea, but that it makes sense for her to do it. Such as she’s an electrician and she thinks the mysterious sound is her missing dog.

And in the end, my editor is right. It makes for a better book when I don’t take the easy way out.

I think the same can be said for life. We can take the easy way out, but what’s the point?  Life is filled with opportunities that take the form of problems. When we take the easy way out, we often miss opportunities to grow as a person. We miss opportunities to  learn. We miss opportunities to  develop a stronger character. We miss opportunities to  learn how to handle adversity.

Sometimes, it may seem like such a little thing that we think it doesn’t matter if we take the easy way out. My advice is DON’T DO IT. Practicing on the small things, will give us the skills for the big things!

And let’s face it, most of us don’t get through this life without facing a few of the big storms of life. So my advice is to not stay in the house out of the storm, but get your umbrella out and walk through the storm!