Monday, October 13, 2008

Defining moments

Sometimes, when you write, a character has a defining moment. It's a point in their story that you never really realized would happen the way that it does, and in the end, it changes the character in some way, either for better or for worse.

A lot of the time, I have a general idea about how a character's story is going to go. Yet, even with that in mind as I write, things do happen. When that happens, the general story plot stays the same, but the character changes and so the responses they would have had are now different. Sometimes that changes the outcome of the story or the way the outcome is reached.

So my question is this: If this happens to characters in my head or on the paper, is it possible for it to happen in real life?

The truth is that, yes, it does happen in real life. We all have defining moments in our life, some that we are aware of quite vividly while some we don't even realize, and they change our course. They shape who we are as individuals and help us grow, in one way or another.

Sometimes we are not aware of what is going on around us - we are either too involved with the situation to see it, or we are oblivious - and the moment passes us by quietly, leaving only the aftermath. At other times, though, we are intimatly aware of what is going on and of how it is affecting us.

My question to you, cyberland readers, is how do you treat your defining moments? Do you realize them or do you ignore them? Do you take the opportunities as they arise or do are you so blind to them that you let them go without even realizing it until it's too late?

Think about it, and keep an eye out for your defining moments.

Until next time.

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