Fictional characters are my role models.

Alright, before you grab your popcorn and settle in, hear me out.

I’m really just a big dork, and when I want to channel some killer confidence or attitude throughout my day, I turn towards my favorite fictional characters.

Do I want to walk into a meeting and own the room? Easy, Wonder Woman crossing the battlefield with a shield. Do I want to sip my drink and throw a comeback at my rival’s face? Cersei from Game of Thrones, where you at? Heck, do I have a goal I need to strive for? Ash Ketchum from Pokemon. That dude’s been trying to catch em all for multiple decades now. You can’t beat that kind of consistency.

You know the cliche. The one that says that the suffering artist creates their greatest work.

I’ve found that the claim is BS.

Writing when it hurts isn’t easier. It’s hard. When you can hardly find the strength to roll out of bed, that doesn’t make it any easier to open up your laptop or journal and write. When you can hardly put one foot in front of the other, how can you put one word after the other, as well?

The way for me to get out of that, the rut of just, well, nothing, to describe it best to someone who understands what that nothing is…

Morality is a gray area. But, especially when first writing characters, people tend to forget that evil characters weren’t just steeped in evil since the start of their chaotic cruel existence.

And I can’t judge. Hell, I wrote my first novel where the character was just cackling, surrounded eternally by shadows type of evil. They just wanted to take the throne to all power because they felt wronged. They were Darth Vader, I am your father, psyche, Luke! level of evil.

Nobody’s either good or evil. Fairytales might enjoy their cackling witches and mustache-twirling warlocks, but reality isn’t anywhere close to black and white. Like life, it’s just a gray area.

Sometimes, I forget that all my characters don’t have to have perfectly witty comebacks for every line. Or a show-stopping quote.

Sometimes, I forget that not all people are super extroverts who suddenly form fast friendships to go on magical quests or save the world or something like that.

Sometimes, I forget that I, though a self-identifying introverted extrovert, also have my quiet moments. Sometimes, in some situations, I just don’t feel comfortable enough to speak.

But that doesn’t mean I’m not thinking.

I walked along the snow today, and sometimes, I have this habit of lifting my head up to the sky. I developed it over summer, to tilt my face towards the warmth of the sun.

But now, I kind of just lift my head up to smile at even the grayest of clouds. I know, I know, something could fall out of the sky and hit me (bird projectiles perhaps), but that’s not the point.

May your characters be so interesting that you could hang out with them for hours.

May your manuscript be easy and fulfilling for you.

May you reach your writing goals or break forth with amazing new ones.

May you find good books to read, and meet authors that inspire you.

May you make new friends to help you with your creative journey.

May you find yourself in fiction. May you learn from the truth, as well.

May you become the writer you always dreamed you would be. May you become an inspiration to the next generation.

In honor of my post “Killing Your Darling Characters” being one of my most influential Writeblr “hits”. (Am I a “hit”? Funny, it’s more like a viral hit-and-run. Wow, how did I ever get to this point of sleep deprivation and puns.)

Here’s a (brief?) list of characters you should try and let live to the end of the story.

1. The LGBT+ ones. Darling, I’m all about representation. Just don’t place the sole gay character in an early grave, please. Thank U, Next. (Non-cis too!)

In my experience, sleep and creativity… they’re both parts of an age-old paradox. Maybe it’s just the fact that I need caffeine to focus (and have since I was 16), but I digress.

To be able to have enough energy to make art, write stories, sing songs, or even get out of bed to make delicious waffles, you need to sleep a decent amount. I love mornings. I love the illusion of productivity: of seeing the day just get started. The amount of time I have before the rush of midday sets in, that’s wonderful.

I remember a time when I laughed at people who thought video games were art.

Then I played a couple that proved me wrong.

I remember playing a point-and-click game at age twelve that sent me spiraling down the crazy thought process of nihilism. (I know some people could handle that better than me, but I freaked out when I first really considered the concept). It was a video game about a young businessman who just… gets bored of it all. So bored that you could just click and point for him to walk out of his car and pet a cow in a grassy field. He just didn’t show up to work. He threw coffee at his cruel boss. He laughed and stared up at the sun.

It’s a bit like staring at old photographs in a scrapbook (or selfies from a couple years ago for those who never lived through the scrapbooking era). You see the subtle shifts, or the not-so-subtle changes. Maybe you started working out. Maybe you cut your hair, dyed in, then grew it out again. Maybe you had different friends, family, or lovers. You see the photos, and sometimes the memories of what you used to be come easy. Maybe they struggle and move away from you, wriggling like fish in a river, sliding downstream.