I'm writing a story right now, a sci fi novel for young readers and young adults that my son and I are collaborating on.
I'm writing the story in the third-person limited omniscient mode (at least so far) so that everything is seen though the lens of the main characters experience. Of course this is how we live our lives. We tell our story to ourselves and to others to make sense of what happens to us and to give ourselves the (perhaps) illusion of personal continuity.
We are the heros of our own lives.
What really boggles my mind is that EVERYONE is the hero of their own lives. 6 Billion people.
That is a lot of stories.
I wonder if some people aren't the heros of their own lives. Are there people who think of themselves as the sidekick or the love interest or the comic foil.
Anyone out there know they are actually the antagonist of someone else's story? (in the classic Northrop Frye sense).
I wonder if people who aren't bombarded with stories (like we are in the US) tell themselves a simpler kind of story. Back when the old shaman told one story a week did people tell more realistic stories about themselves? I know my grandparents were really simple folk with simple goals: Survive, have kids that survive, die and go to heaven. Once you handle those first two things get complicated. I know I don't worry about surviving (as much as I should) and I don't worry about the afterlife because I'm pretty darn sure I'm never going to die.
I wonder what's gonna happen next?
Why can't you just move to change your environment? Change is a tonic, William Zinnsser wrote, but it is also a painful process. Nothing truly changes without some measure of creative destruction. The definition of Change is to make something different. I can't imagine making something different without a modicum of violence. And by that I mean, even the slightest amount. So, by your barometer of three, if you were to move to another state, another country, even another town in your city, that would create great change. It would also require action as well as thought. You THINK of making the change. You ACT on the decision. The result is a change in your environment. Even if it's moving your desk to the other side of the room. Move your desk. The true question is what would you most like to change? When this question is answered most honestly, the answer will be a)painful, b)embarrassing, c)hurtful, d) the truth. And then it can be dealt with.
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