Me Vs. Me (Holly Schindler)

I feel like this is the biggest conflict of my life--but why wouldn't it be? Foes (or, at least, perceived foes) come and go. Antagonists move out of town. Dangers from the natural world (in Missouri, tornadoes) blow in and blow back out. But me? I'm the one constant in my life. I follow me everywhere. 

Funny, that.

Maybe this is why I've been connecting so strongly lately with marrying character development to plot points. For the most part, I do feel as though the main function of story is to walk inside a person as they go about making a dramatic change in their personal lives. That change, I think, is more important than anything else in the story--solving the murder of a mystery, escaping the monster of a horror novel, fighting the foe of an adventure. 

The physical goings-on of a novel are there, I feel, to further the change in the main character. Car chases and bank robberies and wrecks and flying glass and gunshots and cliffhangers are not the main focus. They're the vehicle for the main focus (character change).

I love figuring out how to make a character get out of their own way. Make them push forward, find their own strength, come out victorious. For the most part, we as readers won't literally go chasing down any bad guys. But we all have to fight that face in the mirror.

~

Holly Schindler is the author of the YA A Blue So Dark.