Characters - Every Last One of Them!

This group I traveled with last week is full of extraordinary people. And isn't that what makes a good novel? The characters?

When I first started writing my novel, I thought I would focus on placing just regular everyday people in difficult positions and seeing how they would work their way out of it. As I progressed, though, I realized that there are no such things as regular everyday people!



Furthermore, when faced with difficult situations, those same people can seriously exhibit superhuman traits such as self-control, calming influences, patience. Go to any grocery store during rush hour and find an ample supply of folks who could use a double dose of those virtues.

So I started looking at the characters of the people that were around me. Don't worry, if you're one of them!  First, I promise not to identify you. Second, you won't be ashamed of anything I have to say about what I witnessed. No worries :)

I chose to the two boys at the top for my first characters. Well, they're hardly boys! One is heading to his senior year and the other is in college.

I've known the senior since birth. What an amazing man he has grown into! I was particularly impressed with his grace under fire last week. He leads our top Bible Bowl team along with a brilliant redhead. (Nope, mine is brilliant, but this is another redhead.) A few weeks ago, the redhead had some health problems. They persisted throughout the Nationals competition last week, forcing her to sit out for several games. The senior never so much as grimaced. Winning many of their games in the first few rounds, when the more difficult rounds came up and the team was out-played, he not only didn't crumple into frustration, he joked and smiled and supported their opponent with sincerity. For a high school senior, that's character!


The second man up there totally blew me away when we stopped for dinner one evening. We were in a food court of a mall. He got up and took his tray. Then he started asking some of the girls around him if they were done and took theirs. Then he bussed some of the boys' tables. As if that wasn't enough, he even cleaned up some of the tables around us that weren't people in our group. What's more, I bet he didn't even notice anyone was paying attention! Quiet spoken, talented, athletic and smart, this guy would make a GREAT leading man in a novel.

By the way, the game they're playing at the top of the page is something like the paper football game that I remember playing when I was in seventh grade. I'm just saying . . .

And I won't tell you about the other games they were playing on the bus. A fact they will undoubtedly thank me for. BOYS! I told you they were characters!

Surely you know some folks who have shown amazing character in the last few days. What did they do that set them apart from the norm?