By Connie S. Hall
Many times while hiking, I’ve run across a sign that said Stay on the Path. As I continued down the path, it became clear that this was excellent advice. I’m not an expert, but some of the hills had steep drop-offs, and the turns were sharp. Some of the ground looked unstable. To someone with better eyes than I or with some experience there may be other reasons for the cautious sign.
Sometimes when walking life's paths, some of us want to linger in dangerous places, thinking that it is fun and thrilling and that we are in control. The only place I feel in complete control is when I’m writing. I can make my character do whatever I want them to do. I can make them live on the edge, but that is a path I shouldn’t take.
When climbing the mountains of life, I know I should stay on the right path. There is only one path that leads to happiness in this life, and it’s following the directions of Christ. Although writing has taught me to stay on the path, I have found that my characters need to stray sometimes, or the story gets too boring. Conflict is necessary, but as my story concludes, I hope to show my readers a good course to follow in reaching happiness.
2 comments:
Sounds to me like you've done plenty of hiking, Connie.
It's true, our characters do need to stray in order for our stories to be interesting. They need adversity and to learn from their mistakes ... just like we do!
PS: Although I'm not implying that any of us, personally,should "stray"--just that we should learn and grow from adversity.
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