One Hand

I’m still working with one hand due to the broken collarbone. Tomorrow afternoon I go in for surgery where the doctor will insert a plate so the bone can grow back together properly. As he told me last week, I’ll go in with a broken bone and come out with a broken bone, but at least it’ll be set up to heal. Anyway, you didn’t come here to hear me whine about this, although it does affect my writing. I’m sure it’ll put me on the sidelines for a couple of days. I haven’t done much since the last entry since I went out of town for an annual guys’ weekend. In editing First Step as I did on Thursday, I’m finding it makes sense to add details to the lives of some minor characters. It really doesn’t take much to flesh out someone who, as they say in movieland, doesn’t get much screen time. I found this also with First, where I did character sketches after the fact and used those to make the bit players more vivid. One of my theories on great TV shows, especially sitcoms, is that every character is a bit psychotic. Not neurotic, but with just a little dash of psychosis to make them unique and interesting. Cheers was a perfect example - Sam was a womanizer, Diane a frustrated novelist, Coach suffered from being hit on the head one too many times with a baseball, Norm - well, Norm loved beer. Anyway, every character in a book doesn’t have to be psychotic, but they should have something that makes the reader realize there’s more to that character than just a few throwaway lines. Kind of like people in real life.