Can you put a price-tag on truth?

How much is the truth worth? What would you sacrifice to have it? What would you give up to share that truth? Would you give up your time? Money? Energy?

What about your job? What about your peace of mind? Would you give up your safety? Or someone else's safety?

How important is it to know the truth?

I guess that really depends on what truth we're talking about doesn't it?

If we're talking about the truth that I currently have ten plane tickets from various flights tacked to my wall, or the truth that as yet unpublished my novel Clone is a little over 75,000 words, you probably don't care too much.

If we're talking about a government conspiracy that's deliberately sabotaging every blonde's education so that they're barred from going to university, you'd probably care quite a bit more. So I suppose these questions are all going to end up being quite relative to each person depending on what truth they have in mind.

But what about just the concept of truth? Not one specific truth, but the idea of it. There are lots of people today who would argue the fact that truth can even exist, they may be reading this post right now. How do you feel about that? Do you want to fight for it? Do you care?

I know I do. It's actually one of the issues I explore in the book I'm seeking to get published. The desire to know the truth, and the desire to share that truth with others for no other reason than to have the truth out there. Simply because it should be. Is that a bad thing? Lots of people in the book think so.

We live in a society where secrets are some of the most valuable things we possess. We guard them with our lives. Hoard them like gems. Our privacy is something so precious to us that we will fight tooth and nail to keep it. I think a lot more people are concerning themselves with making sure the truth will never surface than to see the truth come out. And what has that done for us? Not a whole heck of a lot. It's created an untrusting, closed, distant society where no one really knows anyone else.

In some genres - like mystery - deceit, and veiled truth are the most valuable things of all. The whole point of the book is that you don't know the whole truth. So I guess in some situations we actually take pleasure out of not knowing the truth. After all, who doesn't enjoy a surprise birthday party every once in a while?

Even still, sometimes I really wish that there could be no more secrets. I just wish that the whole truth were always out there 24/7. Things would be a lot simpler. Sincerity would be a real thing again. Survivor would never work.

"Are you in an alliance with Jen?"
"Yep."
"And are you going to vote me out tonight?"
"Yep."
"Well, I'm thoroughly disappointed but not surprised. I'll go pack my stuff."

Oh ya, great suspense. But I digress.

I guess what I'm saying is, I would love for the truth to not just be a moment, or a particular phrase, but a state of being. I think that's what God's will would be for us. to live in complete truth with one another, and in so doing, draw nearer to him. To never keep any hidden sin in our lives, and always confess it openly.

But for so many people that will never happen, because we're fearful. We're scared of what might happen. We like our secrets. We like that no one really knows us because if they did they'd know just how messed up we all are. Does that mean I never have secrets? No. Because I'm not perfect either. I'm just saying it would be a lot easier to be truthful if that was just the norm.

I can only speak for myself, but I know I'd give almost anything to have the truth. The real cold hard truth all the time. Our world would be a much better place if we could just be honest with each other.

I guess the real question is, could we handle the truth all the time?


So what do you think? Truly? How valuable is the truth?

Characters don’t run your story

SO, I realize it’s been forever since I last posted.  Mostly I’d like to say that’s because I’ve been super busy.

Mostly it’s because I’ve been super lazy.

It’s one of the strangest feelings when you say you’ll get back to something once things are normal again, and then you realize your normal is gone. I kept saying once I was back into the swing of things I’d be back into writing, but not going back to school for the first time in my life meant things would not go back to the way they were. That took some getting used to.

ANYWAY.

So over the summer, as those of you who know me will know, (and of course I have a HUGE following of people who don’t know me, so don’t feel left out if you’re part of that group that numbers in the millions, if not dozens of people) I was teaching English at a Quebec summer camp. (I should write another post about how annoying lots of random notes in parentheses can be). I enjoy talking about this camp for a number of reasons. It was a big part of my life for a few months, and I find it easy to pull analogies out of.

This particular analogy is about characters telling the author what to do. Some writers claim that at a certain point, their creations just run amuck, and do whatever they want, and that the author has no control. I will admit that there was a time when I indulged this kind of thinking, but NO MORE. This is really a very nonsensical thought. (And not for the reason all you non-writers out there are thinking). It’s not because your works can’t develop a life of their own, it’s because you as the author should know much better than your creation what’s good for them.

When I was teaching English, there were some things my kids liked to argue about that were just plain wrong.

“BUT SEVEEEEEEEEEN!!! They would wail. “You don’t say ‘I am 12 years old’, it’s ‘I have 12 years old’!!! Everyone knows that!!!” Now, in French, if you were to literally translate what they were saying, they’d be right, because that’s how it’s said in French, but they didn’t fully understand the English version, and so we argued about it. Many of them still don’t believe me. Another day, I was discussing contractions, and when presented with the two options “You’d not”, and “You wouldn’t” 100% of the class voted for the former as the more proper version. Clearly, you don’t let students run the class, and in the same way, you clearly don’t let characters run your story.

So what if Sally wants to jump off the bridge because her stupid werewolf boyfriend dumped her for an X-Men? She’s not gonna kill herself two chapters in! She’s your protagonist! And you know better than she does! You know that in the end she gets to take that werewolf down with a silver bullet to the chest in that awesome Western Showdown you’ve got going on in Chapter 73!

“BUT HER EMOTIONS!!!” You whine.

“SO WHAT?!” I calmly reply. You need to learn to work around her emotions to get her through, otherwise you’ll just end up with garbage in the end. Letting your characters be real is one thing, letting them take over is another thing entirely. Don’t give in to imaginary-peer pressure.

Say ‘No’, to character enabling.

Have you ever heard of authors claiming their characters are running the show? What are your thoughts on this? Is it crazy? Genius? Pitifully psychotic? Let your voice be heard!


*SIDENOTE* - To all my awesome Quebec friends, just so you know, anytime I mention my crazy times with my francophone students I am in no way trying to offend any of you. Just wanna put that out there. I LOVE YOU GUYS!! :P