Three Things Thursday

From Carol:

My Internet is doing weird things today. Perhaps it wants me to Write Like a Writer?

My goals for today:

Work on novels for the next two hours.

Go to the gym.

Clean and declutter.

What are your Writing Like a Writer goals?

 

From Brenda Bensch

Did you see the Parade Magazine interview with author Anna Quindlen (Still Life with Bread Crumbs) on Easter Sunday? She was asked “What was the first book you remember loving as a child?” Her answer: “Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott. Jo March wants to be a writer and then becomes one. Enough said.”

It’s hard for me to remember that far back. I loved Little Women too. But I think earlier I was totally entranced with the Oz books and Alice in Wonderland. I know I read all of those over and over and over. Oddly, one of my favorite Oz books was Kabumpo of Oz, which was NOT written by Frank L. Baum, but by Ruth Plumly Thompson.

What was YOUR favorite children’s book? And have you read it to YOUR children, or have they read it themselves?

From Cheryl Van Eck

I have a superpower.

It is immunity to painkillers of all kinds.

You can imagine how thrilled I am to have this superpower today, which was Root Canal Day.

Reasons I should not have felt any pain:

1. The dentist used Novocain.

2. The nerve in the tooth was “already dead.”

3. I took (prescribed) Valium in advance to calm my anxiety, because after all, it’s “all in my head.”

Reason I did feel intense pain:

1. I am immune to all these things.

What does this have to do with writing? It’s a character quirk of mine. Not many people have the all-encompassing fear that I have when sitting in the dentist’s chair. I wasn’t born afraid, but I was born with a superpower that turned into a curse.  Then when no one believed me, it created a full-blown phobia.

So what about your character? What superpowers do they have? Even contemporary characters can have supernatural qualities. Having one quirk that is not normal actually makes a character more realistic. After all, what your mother always told you is true: We’re all special in our own way.

I do wish mine were a little less painful…