No matter how many times I'm blessed enough to witness a beach sunrise, they never get old. To me, they are an inspiring start to the day—a reminder that God has gifted me one more morning. The sky lightens, the clouds become visible, and shadows give way to discernible shapes. Then, the sun frees itself from the never ending horizon. Glorious.
This is just my perspective. For many people who live near the coast, the sun rises as it always has: nothing life-altering there, and no reason to wake up early to see it.
As I jogged around the resort property in Mexico, I caught several pictures of the sun's progression. A few elderly vacationers adjusted their chairs to face the spectacle, but the hotel workers went about their business sweeping floors and setting up for another busy day by the pool.
It's the same for me when traveling around Atlanta. Because I have frequented the city, I know what to expect. I don't stare up at the tall buildings or snap photos by the tourist attractions. Even the chaotic airport doesn't faze me.
But when I tell out-of-towners where I live, I'm met with replies like, "I went through the Atlanta airport once. What a chaotic place!" When I visit other airports, especially smaller ones near ski towns or in the Caribbean, I think, "Where's the rest of it?"
A scene in the movie Practical Magic beautifully sums up this contrast of how perception differs, even between people who have similar life experiences.
In the beginning of the movie, two young witch sisters lose their parents: their father to a curse on their family, and their mother to a broken heart soon after. The children then go to live with their eccentric witch aunts who don't believe in rules.
One night, the sisters, around 8 or 9 years old, witness their aunts working a spell for a distraught woman. This woman is so in love with a married man, she pleads with the aunts to cast a spell that will make him leave his wife. To complete the spell, the desperate woman has to stab a pigeon.
The younger sister looks away, chanting, "I hope I never fall in love," while clinging to her sister. The older sister is transfixed and says, "I can't wait to fall in love."
Those two perspectives sum up their characters into adulthood. The older sister later leaves home with a boyfriend while the younger sister is afraid to date at all. Doing so might activate the curse that killed her father, and therefore also kill her future lover. It's recklessness vs. fear in classic form. The sisters are only about a year apart, had the same heartbreaking circumstances, but they have entirely different views of them.
Whenever I feel like two characters may be too similar in my novels, I find ways to shift their perception and get a different reaction. This happens with a closer look at their backstories and presenting challenges that would deeply affect one and not necessarily the other.
Questions like these help get me there: how would each character react to a lost job? A personal failure? Losing a loved one? If their secret is revealed?
In the Serene Sundown series, I had to do this for two of the male characters. At a glance, both of them are able to laugh off almost any stressful situation. I upped the stakes.
Character 1 has a lifelong secret he can no longer hide at one point in the story. This causes him to lose his sense of humor and withdraw from the people he loves. His devotion to his family and their status kept him from being true to himself. While this secret makes him feel less lovable, character 2 who shares his jovial nature wouldn't even blink under the same circumstance.
Instead, character 2 loses his cool when his older brother makes unwise decisions behind his back. Character 2 could always count on his brother to keep a cool head. For the first time, character 2 feels what it's like to pick up the slack. Character 1 wouldn't be as bothered if his brother chose a hard path.
When circumstances change for the worse, characters take those steps that can lead them from bitterness to enlightenment and everything in between. As readers, we love those stories where characters push through their circumstances and come out better on the other side. Those who end up worse can be villains in the making.
When we dig into each character's backstory, their justifications should be clear. Even if readers/watchers want to yell at the page or screen at a beloved character's terrible choices, they should still feel a thread of understanding. When that thread isn't there, stories fall through. Connecting motivational dots is one of my favorite parts of editing. Work those backstories until even side characters find their places in the spotlight.
Keep on smilin'!
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