Feet on the Ground, Head on the Plane.

I'm suffering from a good dose of jet lag. I returned late last night, and even though my feet are on the ground my head is still on the plane.

Please forgive me.

But PLEASE stop by Thursday, and I'll share some fun stuff about my trip to Ireland with you.

Show a Little Kindness

Have you ever had to rely on the kindness of strangers?

Kindness is a very important virtue, and I think many times it's overlooked because it's so simple. Kindness can be as simple as a smile, merely opening a door for someone who has their arms full, or to push someone down a hallway in a wheelchair.

If you work at it kindness can become part of who you are. Do you remember the "Random Acts of Kindness" craze that was so popular a few years ago. The movie Pay It Forward, used random acts of kindness as a theme. Kindness can become part of your character.

Did I say character?

Well, of course, that's going to bring up writing. Do you have characters in your story who are genuinely kind? So kind that they would give the shirts of their backs to help another character? I hope so. Your story needs characters who are mean, but also characters who are kind. Show your hero's kindness by his thoughts or actions. And he doesn't need to be kind at the beginning of the story, but hopefully by the end he should have grown and learned the value of kindness.

Take a challenge and write a scene where one of your characters performs a random act of kindness.

I'm in Ireland this week with my daughter. Hubby stayed home. :(

My daughter and I will be relying on the kindness of strangers, in a strange land. I hope we have the luck of the Irish with us.



Oh, Happy St. Patrick's Day on the 17th. We will be in Dublin that day. It might get very interesting.

Self Control is a Virtue

Self control is a virtue every person should aspire to achieve.

Self control breaks down to choices. We choose how we react to given situations.

However, I think an exception to this is if you hear of a loved one dying. When I received the phone call that my father had unexpectedly died, tears automatically rolled down my cheeks. It was total reaction to something beyond my control.

Another exception, when suddenly scared out of my mind, I scream or freeze. Both reactions just seem to happen.

And yet another exception, when I'm extremely happy a smile comes to my face.

But wait a minute . . . it's only human to react to situations with emotion. But self control is learning how to contain those sudden emotions and master them.

To master self control perhaps we should:

1) Stop
2) think
3) what could happen?
4) and is that what you want?

Hmm, so yeah, when I'm happy I'm going to smile. And when I'm scared, well I'd rather not freeze and scream, I'd rather take stock of the situation and act. But when a loved one dies, it's perfectly all right to cry. I guess I've already decided that.

What about the characters in your story? Do they have self control? It's okay if they don't. They are only characters written by humans who are also struggling with self control and we want our characters to ring true. A writer needs to show characters struggling with their emotions, characters with flaws, and characters learning self-control.

We (writers and characters) are all learning the virtue of self control.

Have you ever written a character who has struggled with self control?