The Hero’s Journey – A Character Study of Lebron James

Lebron James has always fascinated me. I love basketball–coaching, playing, and watching.  I grew up and have spent most of my life in Cleveland. Since I am the same age as Lebron (actually I am 8 months older than him), I grew up listening and hearing about him. I remember when my high school boys’ basketball team played his high school St. Vincent St. Mary. His team obliterated my high school, led by Lebron who scored maybe 50 points. And my high school boys’ team wasn’t your average high school team. It’s a big school with a great basketball program.  I say all this to let you know I’ve been paying attention to Lebron for years, and I am a fan of his, even when he left Cleveland four years ago.

If you are sick of the Lebron story, or simply the fact that a professional athlete is such big news in our society, I agree with that sentiment. But I think Lebron is big news because he’s a great character, and his life is telling a great story. Here’s a couple quick examples:

Good stories start with great characters. Readers love a character with a tortured backstory who rises above his or her circumstances to accomplish a goal.

• Lebron is a rags to riches story. He was born to a sixteen year old mother in a rough area of Akron, Ohio. He was introduced to basketball at age nine, and within a few years he was dubbed the next Michael Jordan capturing the basketball spotlight for the next fifteen years.

We resonate with a character who learns and grows through his or her mistakes. We want to read about a heroic character–a character who has a cause bigger than his or herself.

• Lebron has made mistakes throughout the years on the court and a few off the court. But, he keeps learning and growing so he can be a better basketball player, teammate, dad, and person. One of the reasons he cited for coming back to Cleveland was to bring home a championship to the city. He sees the hunger for Clevelanders to have something to celebrate. He wants that to be part of his legacy.

Lebron is one example of someone who makes a great character in a story. I love looking at real people and seeing what story he or she is telling. Usually it’s the people close to me, but sometimes somebody in the spotlight catches my attention.

Do you know someone living a good story? Why is he or she a good character?

Killing Main Characters in Novels

In this month’s video post, I talk about Zelda’s habits on walks, killing off main characters, along with what I’m up to these days.

Scooping Ice Cream is Helping My Fiction Writing

 

I recently left my position at Forest Hill Church as Youth Director. Since my last day at Forest Hill, my life has been filled with moving, travel, a funeral, and a new job. But, life is finally settling down and I am growing accustomed to a new routine.

My new routine includes working a local ice cream shop, Sweetie Fry as an assistant manager. My work is varied; I do anything from creating a new website, social media, blogging, event coordination, marketing, inventory management, to scooping ice cream. It’s a great change of pace for me, and I’ve found scooping ice cream is helping my fiction writing. Let me explain.

I am fortunate to work in an area with a great amount of cultural diversity and I encounter interesting people each day. Some days, I learn a portion of their story or background. Other days, I simply learn their favorite ice cream flavor and invent a story for them.

The interactions with new people are seeping into my characters and writing. I am putting faces to characters based on interactions or creating stories based on a person I met. I jot down notes of someone interesting and make a note for a later story. It’s so much fun and I’m glad to have a job which fosters creativity.

 

How does your day job help your writing or creative endeavors?

Creating Emotional Scenes in a Story – A Study of Friday Night Lights

Friday Night Lights is one of my favorite television series. I was a latecomer to the series, catching the entire series for the first time on Netflix a couple of years back. But, I loved it and couldn’t stop watching. So, a couple of months ago, I started watching the series again from start to finish to see if it holds up after a second viewing. It does.

Friday Night Lights is a show that tugs on my emotions every single episode. I can’t believe how often I have tears in my eyes, and often not sad tears, but tears because the moment on the screen is so moving.

So, as I continue work on my young adult novel, I am examining Friday Night Lights to figure out how the series manages to pack so much emotion into each episode and how I can bring emotion into my YA novel. Obviously, television and novels are two different mediums, but both are story-telling mediums and enough crossover exists for writers to learn from television and likewise.

I think the series is fantastic at portraying authentic relationships and those relationships create emotional scenes. The relationship between Coach Eric Taylor and his wife is a great example. Their relationship isn’t perfect; they fight, argue, and disagree, yet they understand their love for each other remains in the tough moments.

I also think Friday Night Lights has an element of realism many teen dramas do not. The football team does not win every game. Star players get injured. People make bad decisions. And in all of those moments, the characters wrestle with what is right and many times, the decision isn’t black or white. Friday Night Lights isn’t afraid to go into the grey areas of our lives.

So I am using those two concepts to help me with my novel-writing. I want to create authentic relationships and tackle grey areas of our lives in my novel. I want my readers to feel like the story is real.

What are ways you create emotional scenes in your stories or novels?

What are your favorite novels, television series, or movies for tugging at your emotions?

The Importance of Character Interaction: A Lesson from Season 4 of Arrested Development

I am a big fan of the television series Arrested Development. I have the first three seasons on DVD, and I have watched each season at least ten times. I love Arrested Development for many reasons. To name a few, the writing is clever, the characters are ridiculously awesome, and the show is still funny ten years later. Plus, there is always money in the banana stand. Needless to say, when I heard about season four coming to Netflix, I was excited.

However, as my husband and I learned more about the upcoming season, we became a bit worried. The format of the fourth season of Arrested Development is completely different. I like that Mitch Hurwitz is being creative and trying new things with the flexibility of Netflix. But, I was disappointed to hear every episode was centered around one character. Later, I learned part of the reason for the change was the availability of the cast. Arrested Development was a springboard for much of the cast into greater acting fame. Therefore, it was difficult to gather the cast together for filming.

In case you live in a hole, the complete fourth season of Arrested Development was released to Netflix on Sunday May 26. The season has 15 episodes of varying length with most around 30 minutes. My husband and I have been making our way through the season since its release date. We finally finished the season over the weekend and were a bit disappointed  because some of our worries going into this season were correct.

The new format of the show loses much of the essence and fun of Arrested Development. Each episode focuses on one character for a span of time. During the episode, there is little interaction between the focus character and the rest of the cast; the fun interplay between the characters is lost. I love the show because putting all the stellar actors and ridiculous characters into a room together is a recipe for greatness. Many of the characters do not hold up on their own, but some do. For example, the Gob, Tobias, and George Michael episodes are great.

Season four of Arrested Development reminded me of the importance of character interaction in stories.  An author might have a great character, but not a great story without a good supporting cast. A good story needs good interplay, dialogue, and relationships between the characters. George Michael isn’t nearly as funny without Maeby in the story. Harry Potter isn’t the same boy without Ron and Hermoine. Psych detective Shawn Spencer needs his sidekick Gus to solve crimes and keep the laughs rolling.

So thanks to Arrested Development for reminding me of the importance of character interaction, even if it means Season 4 isn’t everything I hoped.