How to Make Room for an MC’s Backstory

Backstory is like baggage in a relationship.

Like a new lover or friend, every character and storyworld has baggage—I mean—backstory that affects:

• who/what they are by the time readers meet them
• their main goal
• their motivations
• how they go about making decisions, etc.

Some backstories are easier to handle than others. Some are quite pleasant in fact. But, regardless, each must be addressed. Otherwise, the relationship—the “story” and the character’s role within it—implodes.

Key Question: How/When to address it?

In Defense of Writing Tropes

Do you love them, or despise them?

Are you using them to your advantage?

Have you ever felt barred from them?

• To ignore a trope could be to “question your readers’ intelligence.”
• To perpetuate a negative trope could be to “side with the oppressor.”
• To uphold a positive trope could be to “restore faith in humanity.”

Tropes are a means of communication.

We need tropes.

Both as writers and readers. There can be no such thing as an original idea without first understanding—and utilizing to your advantage!—the ideas that have already been done and that already exist in your readers’ minds.

Ghastly Migraines (Flash Fiction)

Thank you, Priceless Joy, for hosting Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers, and thank you, Louise (with The Storyteller’s Abode), for providing the inspiring photo prompt this week. If you haven’t heard of or joined this challenge, please check out the link and PJ’s blog for more details and entertaining entries. You won’t regret it.

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Now, to the story:

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My Parachute (Flash Fiction)

A big thank you goes to Priceless Joy for hosting Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers, and another thank you goes to Sunayana (with MoiPensieve) for providing the inspiring photo prompt this week. If you haven’t heard of or joined this challenge, please check out the link and PJ’s blog for more details and entertaining entries. You won’t regret it. Oh! And…

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY! Love for our significant others, families, friends, and ourselves.

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Now, to the story:

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His love came with socks left on the floor and late-night Espresso runs.

With Colors Like These (Flash Fiction)

Thank you, Priceless Joy, for hosting Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers, and thank you, Phylor, for providing the inspiring photo prompt this week. If you haven’t heard of or joined this challenge, please go check out PJ’s blog for more details and entertaining entries. You won’t regret it.

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Now, to the story:

Why Yes, This is a Bikini (Flash Fiction)

Thank you, Priceless Joy, for hosting this writing challenge: Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers. Another thanks goes to Louise for providing the inspiring photo prompt this week. If you lovely people reading haven’t heard of or joined this challenge, please try it out. It’s a great way to connect with others and share stories. Check out PJ’s blog for more details and entertaining entries. You won’t regret it.

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Now, to the story:

Hanging Over (Flash Fiction)

Thanks to Priceless Joy for hosting this writing challenge: Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers. Another thank you to Yinglan, for providing the inspiring photo prompt this week. If you guys haven’t heard of or joined this challenge, please try it out. It’s a great way to connect with others and share stories. Check out PJ’s blog for more details and entertaining entries. You won’t regret it.

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Now, to the story:

Voilà (Flash Fiction)

Big thanks to Priceless Joy for hosting Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers (75 – 175 words) and Sonya for providing the inspiring photo prompt this week. If you haven’t heard of or joined this challenge, please do yourself a favor and check out PJ’s blog for more details and entertaining entries. You won’t regret it.

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Now onto the story:

Penny Needed A Ride (Flash Fiction)

I must thank the lovely Priceless Joy for hosting Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers (75 – 175 words) and providing the inspiring photo prompt this week. If you haven’t heard of or joined this challenge, please do yourself a favor and check out PJ’s blog for more details and entertaining entries. You won’t regret it.

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Now, to the story:

Infinity Dream Award!!

Hey one, hey all! A special thanks to Mark from Coloring Outside the Lines for passing on this award! ❤ I’m honored to accept this from a fellow blogger who also loves hiking. I hope one day I’ll witness the glorious natural sounds of Glacier Bay, Alaska. If you haven’t already, check out his blog and the blogs of his other nominees.

Now, onwards and upwards!

Real Neat Blog Award!!

I’m honored to accept this award from Facetfully, whose blog is full of intriguing quotes, personal stories, and awe-inspiring crafts. If you haven’t already, please go check out this creative blog. Trust me, the visit and click to follow will be worth it.

The Creative Blogger Award!!

Thanks to Sharon aka *Starlight Daydreamer* who recently wrote a short story that blew me away. I deeply appreciate that this inspiring writer thought of me. Not only is she creative, but she’s empathetic, genuine, and nonjudgmental.

The Creative Blogger Award

1. Nominate 15-20 blogs and notify all nominees via their social media/blogs.
2. Thank and post the link of the blog that nominated you (very important).
3. Share 5 facts about yourself to your readers.
4. Pass these rules on to them.

Why? (Flash Fiction)

High fives and hugs to PJ and pixabay.com for presenting us with this writing challenge and photo, respectively. If you don’t know, I usually scamper around the 75-175 word limit. Today is no different (lol). I hope you enjoy the story below. Click on the link to check out other entries and more details about this challenge. This is also a response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Mentor Me.”

Speak Up! Friday Quotes (9)

• “Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.

• “Like a city with breached walls is a man without self-control” (Proverbs 25:28 ISV).

• “So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads” ― Dr. Seuss.

• “We were revisionists; what we revised was ourselves” ― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale.

Redefining Your Motives

When and why did you start taking writing seriously?

For me, it was when I lost my house to a pissed off hurricane (I was in middle school). Nearly lost my mom, too. As the raw, wet winds whipped every inch of me, I looked at my family and neighbors. Really looked at them and wondered and cared about their perspectives. As Plumb put it, “Everybody’s got a story to tell. And everybody’s got a wound to be healed.” We shared that brilliantly horrific experience, but each and every last one of us would tell it to you differently. And how captivating is that?

I’d thought we’d never come back from that one, but here I am telling you a short version, my version, of what happened and how it redefined my attitude towards writing.

What about you? What’s your story?

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Use It or Lose It.”

Unfrozen

StopAndPrayTV

When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face. Galatians 2:11

At a roundtable discussion about reconciliation, one participant wisely said, “Don’t freeze people in time.” He observed how we tend to remember mistakes people make and never grant them the opportunity to change.

There are so many moments in Peter’s life when God could have “frozen” him in time. But He never did. Peter—the impulsive disciple—“corrected” Jesus, earning a sharp rebuke from the Lord (Matthew 16:21–23). He famously denied Christ (John 18:15–27), only to be restored later (21:15–19). And he once contributed to racial divisions within the church.

The issue arose when Peter (also called Cephas) had separated himself from the Gentiles (Galatians 2:11–12). Only recently he associated freely with them. But some Jews arrived who insisted that circumcision was required for believers in Christ, so Peter began avoiding the uncircumcised Gentiles. This marked a dangerous return…

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Remembering The Little Ones Up Above On Mother’s Day

StopAndPrayTV

 

 

“We shall find our little ones again up above.”

-St. Zelie Martin

Recently, the state of Nebraska passed a bill that is the first of its kind in the history of the United States. The bill allows parents who have lost a child due to miscarriage to apply for a commemorative birth certificate as long as a health care practitioner has verified the pregnancy. Unlike previous bills which mandated that the miscarried child must have been at least 20 weeks old, this bill has no minimum gestation period.

The beauty of this bill is that it publicly acknowledges the life of the unborn, no matter how short their time may have been with us. Miscarriage is an experience that is all too common but often not spoken about in our culture. It is estimated that 15-20 percent of all pregnancies in the U.S. end in miscarriage. Anecdotally, it…

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My Love Will Cost You (Flash Fiction)

Thank you, Priceless Joy, for hosting Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers, and thank you, Mike Vore, for providing the inspiring photo prompt this week. If you haven’t heard of or joined this challenge, please go check out PJ’s blog for more details and entertaining entries. You won’t regret it.

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Now, to the story:

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Daisy May, the ad on Craigslist read.

Do You Want Fries With That? (Flash Fiction)

Much thanks to the beautiful Priceless Joy for hosting Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers (75 – 175 words) and Iain Kelly for providing the inspiring photo prompt this week. If you haven’t heard of or joined this challenge, please check out PJ’s blog for more details and entertaining entries. You won’t regret it.

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Now, to the story:

Don’t Let Them (Flash Fiction)

A big thanks to Priceless Joy for hosting this writing challenge: Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers. Another thank you goes to Phylor, for providing the inspiring photo prompt this week. If you—the lovely person reading this—haven’t heard of or joined this challenge, please try it out. It’s a great way to connect with others and share stories. Check out PJ’s blog for more details and entertaining entries. You won’t regret it.

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Now, to the story: