Day 135: Connections and Cookies

I'm lucky.

I'm lucky to have great friends. I'm lucky to have a great partner. I'm lucky.

As I get older, the more I appreciate other people. And as I get wiser in my writing, the more I appreciate my characters' relationships with one another.

Today as I sat at the Starbucks, revising my book and scaring the hell out of the guy next to me (that'll be a story for later), I started to see how the crew interacts with one another, and I said to myself, "The characters are taking over these plot points. The characters feel deeply for one another and are helping and hindering each other's actions."

I think I'm getting somewhere. I think this is the heart of my novel. It's very hard to put yourself out there at the whim and judgement of another human being, and ninety percent of the time, that human being will disappoint you or you will disappoint them. But it's awesome when that doesn't happen, and then you have a real friend.

The crew in my book do disappoint each other, but they are a family. And that family is strong. And I love writing them. I'm actually really excited about this book.

Okay, now for the story about the guy next to me.

As I discuss with Kate in semi-gory the awful violent scene I was working on, the dude next to us just sort of stared at me, like perhaps I was about to murder him. Writing is such a task that writers understand, but sane people don't get, so I hope I'm not reported for the descriptions I gave aloud at the Starbucks today.

And on a final note, I guess there are differing opinions about writers at Starbucks. But there are cookies there, and I follow the cookies.