I’ve been asked.
“Where do characters come from?”
(You really want to know?)

They might be from you.

Because all writers
takes bits and pieces
of the people around them

and use those bits and pieces
to create, form, and craft
an individual on the page.

Circumstances that swirl around us
become the breath of circumstances
in the characters’ lives.
(if even just a little)

A moment of tenderness
seen, felt, tasted, touched
(or wishing to
see, feel, taste, touch)
becomes a sliver of the beautiful
on the page.

Shifted liquid from icicles of pain here
become icicles of pain in the story.

An argument here becomes
the seed of an argument on the page.
(even if just in flavor, feeling, or tone)

People we admire become the story’s Mentors
imparting knowledge and beauty
in which to revel,
on our backs and face up at the stars.

The friend we have
(or wish we had)
becomes the Ally
of secrets shared and got-your-backs.

The bringer of bad news
(and the change we never imagined)
becomes the Herald
screaming into our lives
words and worlds we never wanted.

Real Life.
Pulled, twisted, and braided
into the pages.

Don’t let anyone fool you.
— we’re all on the pages —

Writers draw from the breath of life.
Good. And Bad.

So the old saying,
be careful around an author,
or you may end up on the page,
is true,
if even in just a tickle of the word.

The pieces of humanity
touching us deeply
become pieces of pressed paper,
the page.

For instance.
My mother is failing.
ever so slowly.
different today than yesterday.
And as whispers life change and float away,
a character forms in my mind.
A character to grace the pages of my book
and somehow make immortal
what I hold dear.

Writing takes the threads of life, so many,
and with colors and weights of variance
fills in
opposites, poles, north and south.
The outstretched arms vs. The brushes with shadow.
all. part. of. story.

For what we really want — is it not true? —
is that, when we read a story,
we immerse, feel, experience the characters
in a way that we know them.
Truly know them.

And somehow.
Through knowing.
We are able
to deal more gracefully
with the life around us.

* Thup