#My500Words Challenge: Day 5

The Challenge

Write What You Know

The 500 Words

This challenge was not unfamiliar to me. People have always told me that this is how writers find their voices, by writing about what they know. But what happens when you’ve written about everything that you know, and then you are suddenly stuck in your own head?

The natural response is to go out and have new experiences.

However, sometimes getting back out there is a major struggle. My summer novel was all about my character counterpart working a job she disliked, learning about who she is, and figuring out what she kind of life she wants. It completed a major chapter in my life; when I was finished, I understood so much more about myself as a woman and as a writer. The experience was incredible, and it took time. 

Patience.

A characteristic I’ve never really had. As the 14 months between when I started writing and when I finished writing dragged on, I grew frustrated. I faced block after block, and sometimes those blocks meant being stuck for a few weeks. But it wasn’t really about writing; it was more about understanding what I was trying to say.

Patience means taking the time to listen and figure out what’s next.

In a moment of inspiration, as I was trying to conceptualize Boston’s book, I realized that patience is something that he has tenfold.

I always thought that writing her (my) story would be my greatest creation, until I started writing the same story from his perspective. Then it dawned on me, it wasn’t her story that made the book special. It was Boston. He was my greatest creation. He is a manifestation of everything that I wanted to say, he represents everything that I know I’m not, and everything that I want to be.

What can I say about Boston? He is a completely fictional character, based on absolutely no one in my life. He is 26 years old, a graduate in Business Communication from Brick-Leavitt College, and the second in command for Fringe Media. He has curly dark brown hair, beautiful blue eyes, and black glasses that he hopes make him look like Clark Kent. He plays the piano, and occasionally plays with his college cover band, Cave-Slayer. His initial attraction to Lindsey Bennett is sparked by how she reminds him of Jean Grey, and grows when he becomes her close friend. When they first meet, she is unavailable by ways of being in a relationship with someone else. Even after she ends the other relationship, it takes the two of them a good two more months before she’s willing to give him a chance.

He never gives up on her because he knows that she is something special. My pal Emma says that’s what makes him so endearing, he waits for her and he is willing to settle for being only her friend until she’s ready for something more. Boston is patient, hopeful, and spontaneous; everything that I am not. He is my fictional Prince Charming.