A Tale of Three Characters

This is probably a simplistic way of looking at literature, but I can’t help it. I like getting to the heart of things and looking at the primary elements.

Just like there are only three primary colors (red, blue, and yellow), I think there are only three kinds of characters in stories. What I mean is, all other colors are made up of combinations of the three primary colors. (Blue + yellow = green, etc.)

Characters are the same way. They are all combinations of three kinds.

I think they are:

• The character that serves as a warning – the kind you know you don’t want to be
• The character you can identify with – the kind with the same strengths and flaws you have
• The character you aspire to be like – those we look up to

The first type of character is easy to spot in a story. This one is almost always the villain, and is often the tragic character, the one doomed to fail.

The second may seem the most desirable – the one you can identify with. We like what they like, we fear what they fear, we want what they want. But for me, this kind doesn’t really offer me much.

Sure, they make me feel like I’m not the only softie in the world who cries over a dead animal in the road, or hothead who has a blast of temper over an injustice. But finding a kindred spirit in a story is not my priority. Not saying it’s wrong to want that – just saying it’s not for me.

If you long for someone like you in a story, more power to you. There are great stories out there that can give you this comradeship, and yes, we can learn as these characters grow throughout the story.

Maybe it’s the way we are made. Maybe that’s why we like certain types of characters. I can’t explain why I always gravitate toward the third type, the kind you can aspire to be like.

I only know that every book or movie I consider to be great has that kind of character in it. Not overly flawed, and better than I am.

The difference with these characters is that they never struggle too long with whether to do the right thing. They don’t wrestle with whether to sacrifice for the greater good, whether to go on the difficult quest.

Their make up is such that the choice between sacrifice and self is really no choice at all. They go quickly forward to sacrifice for others.

I’m pretty sure that I love this kind of character because I love Jesus. He is the original. When He was on this earth, He was never about self. He was about what the Father had asked Him to do: to save us.

He went through the worst kind of death, and He did it because He chose to do it. That is the heart of a hero.

So each time I write or read about a character that lets go of self and walks through the suffering for others, I see a picture of the Hero of all heroes. And that is why Jesus’ story is the greatest story ever told.

Phyllis Keels

A Brand New Story

I did it. I started a new book manuscript two days ago. (Insert squeal of delight here!) For the last several months, when I turn around, a brand new story has been standing there staring at me. “Are you going to write me, or what?”

Now that I’ve released my last book (a little over a week ago), this new story has been all I could think about (mainly because I’m tired of getting stared at). But, I’m really grateful, too! It’s so difficult to let go of beloved characters. But when we have new ones waiting on our attention, it’s a little easier release the fully-grown book into the wild.

This new story is different and is so full of everything I love! The outline came to me in one day. That has never happened to me before. Usually I know the characters, the opening setting, what kind of opposition they face, and how I want it to end. Then I write wherever the story takes me. Most of the time I don’t know how things will get resolved until they do.

This is the first time I saw the whole thing like a movie in my head. It’s good, too! Really good!

I can say that because I’m certain the story didn’t come from me. It was a gift from my Heavenly Father.

He knows that if I don’t write, I will dry up and wither like a fern in a desert. It’s like a dear friend told me not too long ago. She said, “Phyllis, writing produces the fountain in you. When you write, everything else in you flows and you have great joy in everything.”

I think I knew that before she said it, but I didn’t know it consciously. It was really nice to hear someone say it – someone who knows me. That kind of encouragement, that kind of affirmation always builds us up, it always gives us impetus to continue in our area of gifts, doesn’t it?

And that kind of encouragement comes from only one place: the Holy Spirit. Not only does He bring our gifts to us, He teaches us how to use them, He gives us the desire to use them, and then He encourages us in using them.

Because the Lord has presented me with this lovely new story, I’m going to be very ambitious and plan to finish it and release it for Christmas. This year. Oh yes!

Help hold me accountable when I start to whine about how busy I am, and that I have no time to write. Just remind me that writing is a fountain and that it is what I was made to do.

Not that I am a literary genius, or a world-class novelist. I know I’m not. I’m just a broken-hearted sheep who is grateful to be carried tenderly by the Good Shepherd who loves me.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for loving me so much!

Phyllis Keels

Beloved Characters

If you have suffering, if you are heartbroken, did you know that you are blessed? Did you know that you are chosen? You are.

In fiction, writers cause the most awful things to happen to their heroes, heroines, and many of their supporting characters. That’s not because they want to. It’s for two other reasons.

1)   Good writers love their characters

2)   Good writers want their characters to become a hero or heroine

These two reasons are really the same reason. We bring suffering into their lives so that they can become who they are meant to be.

My favorite characters are ones who go through terrible hardships and loss, who remain faithful and who overcome. They are noble and brave. They are compassionate even when they are in crisis, and they are steadfast in their love of God.

Suffering is not pleasant and we usually avoid it at all costs. But sometimes it finds us and we are in it before we can blink.

As a writer, I sometimes don’t know the suffering that is around the corner for my characters. It just happens, or they walk into it. I know the way the story will end but I allow the characters to weave their way through it.

It hurts me to see them suffer but I know it’s necessary. Without it they would never become who they are meant to be. Without it they have no opportunity to perform heroic acts or become the legend that future generations learn from. They would never have a chance to defeat the evil that threatens them.

I cause my characters to go through these kinds of things, not because I don’t love them, but because I do love them. They are beloved characters. They are very dear to me.

If you are suffering, if your heart is broken, if you have hardship, it is not because God does not love you. It is because He does. He loves you with an everlasting love.

That love will take the suffering and exchange it for oil of gladness, beauty, and a crown – your suffering, beloved one.

Phyllis Keels

The Hands that Type

As I was writing on the novel this past weekend, the Lord reminded me of how much I love writing with Him. He amazes me in how He puts His truth into the story, how He molds the characters through their hardships.

Watching these beloved characters come to an understanding of how God reveals Himself is just the most fun. I know that sounds odd since I’m the one writing the story and I’ve made these characters up. But I’m not the one doing the creating, the Lord is.

I’m only the hands that type the words. Even my own imagination is a gift from God. Because He made me to see pictures in my mind, because He formed me to love honorable characters; because He made me to long for people to love Him, He weaves Himself as the constant thread throughout the story. That is to His glory.

When someone reads our writing and says they see God in it, well, that’s the most wonderful thing a writer can hear. That’s what I meant last week when I said that we need to become invisible.

Learning to listen to His voice, His leading, we begin to hear the contrast between His writing and ours. Since I made the conscious choice to seek the Lord before I write, I’ve been able to feel when I start to interject myself into the writing. When I do that, the words are dead.

Only when the Lord writes is there life in the story or the work. When I write it, it’s as dry as dead leaves. It has no meaning, it has no pulse, and it has no depth. It is just a pile of words.

But when I am connected to the vine, The Vine, life runs through every word, shoots through every scene and soars above everything meaningless. Each time I read it I am filled with joy at what God has done.

I am happy to be the hands that type. These hands get to feel the living water flowing through them on their way to do the Father’s work. The process has nothing to do with me except that He allows me to be present when it happens.

So, how does one get there? How does one be present to receive, and then pass on the water to others? I honestly don’t know except that Jesus said, “Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.”

I asked. I sought. I knocked. He is faithful. If He promises something, He will do it. Be certain of that. If you want the Lord to speak through your writing, ask Him.

Talk to other Godly writers who have experienced it. Read Godly writing. Knock on the door and ask the Lord to let you into that place where He will write through you.

Believe that He will do it and then take joy in the presence of the Lord. Thank Him for His kindness to you and then rejoice again. He wants to share this with you and He wants you to know how great His love for you is.

After all, you the writer, are one of His beloved characters.

Phyllis Keels