Thoughts on COVID-19

Guys.

This Corona Virus thing has been hard. 

Trust me. I know.

Plans have been canceled.

People are stuck inside going absolutely insane.

People are bored out of their minds because they've done everything they could have done a million times and now there is nothing else to do.

There are some things that God has been showing me during this time of trouble, and I want to be able to share some of it with you all 

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During this time, some of the things I've seen (even from myself, you guys, I'm not perfect) is that people start thinking about themselves when they're going through a hard time.

Trust me. I have been doing the same thing. I thought I was going to be able to spend an entire week in Olathe Kansas with all my friends in June, and now I don't even know if I'll be able to go and it's been hard for me. But something that I have to keep reminding myself is that... It's not all about me.

My counselor told me something this week that I didn't think about since this entire thing started. She told me that a bunch of her PTSD camps had been canceled and that she was super sad she wasn't going to be able to speak. I had to pause because I realized, "Oh yeah... Other people's plans have been canceled. It's not just me." It was kind of embarrassing because I saw how selfish I had been through all of this.

Maybe you have thought about all the people who's plans have been canceled. That's awesome! You're not as selfish as me! But I know there are times where we look around and think, "Man. I have nothing to do."

the problem is... There is always something you can do.

Something my counselor challenged me to do was to just take a moment and think about what you could do /for others/ that would make their day. It doesn't have to be some grand elaborate thing. it could be you taking a couple minutes out of your boring day and making your siblings bed. Or your parent's bed. Write your parents a note. Tell them how much you love them. They're in the same boat as you, give them some encouragement! Wash the dishes, make dinner, vacuum the living room. Or just ask your Mom or Dad "Is there /anything/ I can do to help you with this or that thing?" Just that question alone could make their day. But you wouldn't know unless you asked, huh?

Something else I've wondered is, "WhEn iS tHiS gOiNg To Be OvEr?!?"

Well. Only God knows when it's going to be over, and quite frankly, I shouldn't even be thinking about the things of tomorrow.

Matthew 6:34 (KJV) says:

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

To be quite frank. Tomorrow is none of our business. We have plenty of problems with the day we are in now, why are we stressing out about what's going happen tomorrow, or the day after?

Yes, this is a little preachy, but I'm preaching at myself here too. I worry about what's going to happen tomorrow all the time! It's just our human nature, but we need to cling to God and his Word in the time of uncertainty and trouble. Yeah, You've probably heard that a million times just this last month probably. But we can't stress it enough because it is so important right now.

Being thankful is another thing that we humans brush off. Yeah, it's hard to be thankful when you're in a bad mood or scared or whatever, but take at least five minutes of your day, and think about what you're thankful for. Our family has family devotions every night and something we've been doing differently each day is just go around the room to say something we're thankful for. God has blessed us with so much, and we tend to forget that God was the reason we were blessed with it in the first place. So take a few minutes out of your day, and just think about what God has blessed you with and what you're thankful for.

Another thing I've found to be helpful is just... writing down words that make me happy. In no particular order. I just sit with a piece of paper and a pen and jot down these little words that make me smile when I think about them. It is a way of being thankful after all.

I hope this little bit is a help to some people. It's just a bunch of things that God is teaching me and I just feel like other people need to know.

God Bless

-K8

Character Personality Struggles

Something I've often struggled with, (And I know others struggle with it too) is when your Characters don't do what you want them to do. Maybe their personality changed -cough- I mean, developed, and doesn't match with how you imagined them. Maybe it messes with the way they do stuff and so it takes your story in a direction... you didn't want to go.

Well, today I hope to give you a couple tips on what to do when that happens!

I didn't know what gif to use this time. 

ANYWAY

The Phase of Character Development

When we start off any book of any kind, we come up with Characters for the story in our head. Characters are what make up a story, so if your characters aren't very developed, the story itself isn't going to be very good. Readers will get bored because the character is boring and end up putting the book down, and never pick it back up again.

So, when you start off with a group of characters, you want to develop them until they are realistic and personal to the reader. Then the reader will love the character and want to know what happens to them.

But, sometimes there are those characters where you think they'll be one way, but end up being something completely different. 

Whatever you do. DON'T FORCE THE CHARACTER TO BE SOMETHING THEY'RE NOT

this will make them flat and hard to work with because you're trying to make them do something when they don't even want to do it. They'll have two different personalities shine through because, on one hand, you're trying to make then do what /you/ want them to do, while on the other, the character just wants to do his or her own natural thing.

You might be thinking, what on earth am I supposed to do when that happens?!

1. Change Your Point of View

When I was writing my first WIP, I hit a rut in the road. My Hero's ally/Menor started developing and was becoming... a character I did want him to be. In my eyes, this character was going to be strong, mature, and kind of like a leader in a sense. Someone that will get my MC on the right track. But boy, after a little bit of developing, I realized he wasn't like that at. all.

He was slow, kind of blond, and definitely NOT the leader type.

I got stuck because he wasn't doing what I wanted him to do, so what did I do?

I took a step back, and thought, what can I do to keep this story going, but also have my characters feel real? And then I realized that maybe I was using the wrong characters for the wrong things. I just needed to switch my MC and my ally, and you know what? I kind of worked! the story started to flow a little bit better and now I have an idea about what I want to happen in the story.

2. Roll With It

If you find your character doing something that is out of the ordinary, don't get frustrated and stop the presses just because your character isn't sticking to the outline of your book. (That's why I don't even outline my book 😋)  Raise an eyebrow, say, "What is this?" and keep going. You might find out something that could be awesome for your book, or maybe, it was just something that helped develop your character.

3. Take a Break to Work on Your Character

If your character just isn't working with you, no matter what you do just take a moment to pull away from your story and try to develop your character. write drabbles, throw them in instances where you want to see what they'll do. If you don't have any inspiration on what drabbles to write about, go on Pinterest and look up writing prompts. It's seriously that easy.

Even if you don't have Pinterest, go to a family member, ask a friend for ideas or instances your character can go through. 

It'll help you take a break from your story but also help build your character up.

I hope this little bit of info can help you!

Don't stress out over your characters. Take a deep breath and just try to work it out in ways that will be fun for you!

-K8