Siriusly Rambling

First off:

#SiriuslyCan'tGetOverThis

Anyways, I'm on something of a mind adventure of contemplation lately.  I've been trying to figure out how to improve my writing and that's led me to thinking a lot about my favorite authors and my favorite books.

I've started to notice something.  Really good authors have a profound way of intertwining wisdom and storytelling.  They can transport ideas from manuscript pages into the minds of their readers.  It gives new meaning to the saying, "The pen is mightier than the sword."

Equally amazing, is the beauty with which the advice is given.  Sometimes authors will use a particularly wise and profound character, a main character's musings, or even just the essence and plot of the story itself.  No matter the vehicle, the elegant language they use to give simple advice enlightens the minds of their readers.  

"Poetry is the road to prose" - When Tolkien struggled to write his thoughts, he would write them in verse, thus making him think about the importance of each word.  It also gave his cadence and, if I say so myself, a more magical feel.

My favorite authors are also really good at creating characters.  Sometimes, characters feel like the hardest thing to make in writing.  Side characters have to be easily accessible (the reader can understand something about their personality from that one conversation they are part of) and main characters have to inspire some kind of emotional attachment.  Shusaku Endo said in The Final Martyrs, "Over the years I have forged intimate familial ties with these characters, who are reflections of a portion of myself.  Consequently, even a character who appeared only once in a short story waits now in the wings, concealed by the curtain, for his next appearance on-stage.  Not one of them has ever broken free of his familial ties with me and disappeared forever - at least, not within the confines of my heart."

I think that by building characters that put on display portions of the writer's personality, we instinctively give the characters more depth.

I also love how good authors have main characters that are flawed, but underneath it all have a desire to do and be good.  This makes them seem even more relatable, because I think all of us have the same desire to be good, but our process is often marred by mistakes and personal flaws.