Camp NaNoWriMo Days 12-14!
Today I have decided to express some of my frustrations about character development in epistolary form…
Dear Protagonist,
I feel like I’ve met you before in real life, but that can’t be, because you are the person I always wanted to exist but doesn’t. I feel like I know you, but at the same time I can’t quite picture your face, and I’m no good at drawing so I can’t even approximate you with colored pencils.
Protagonist, I kind of want to be you, but I also don’t really, because I made you face all the things that terrify me. My job is to push situations at you that people don’t see how you could get out of and then wait for you to probably get out of them anyway. Each sharp word or punch thrown is a grain of sand that weighs you down a little more until the foaming wave rolls up and comes at you, crashing.
They say if you hold up a conch shell, you can hear the ocean in it, but I can hear you too. I have conversations with you sometimes, and I know you want to be more than you are. You want to be a one-woman show – heck, you want to write your own script. I’m not stopping you.
Protagonist, I think maybe I am you. All I want is a little control. Isn’t that what we all search for? We all want to be lifting the pen. We all want to be signing the page.
Sincerely,
Writer
Haiku of the day:
Dear protagonist: Sometimes when I think out loud I hear you talk back
Lauren Hallstrom 