Know The Signs

The best part of having experiences in life is fondly reliving the good ones in my mind.The most useful part of having experiences is being aware of circumstances and feelings that led to them, which help me either repeat or avoid them.

I've worked at horrible jobs. I've had terrible friends. There is a certain impact that they have on my body and my mind. Some things in life suck, but other things suck out your soul. I have enough experience and insight to know when I don't want to get out of bed because I'm tired, because I'm ill, or because I'm filled with mortal dread by the thought of what will happen to me. Each of them are awful, but each one feels different.

These feelings are not always easy to describe with words. (Hint, hint, this is why your vocabulary matters.) Still, if you can focus on the specifics or at least explain the physical feelings with the thoughts that go through the mind (you don't want to get out of bed, but why?), you can portray that feeling accurately enough for the reader to respond to.

More often, though, people don't notice the signs. Some people just aren't that introspective; they lump all bad feelings as "bad", "very bad", or "shitty". Others may realize something is off, but they don't know what's causing it; they either don't have the experience or never mentally recorded the feelings from last time.

When working on your characters, what experiences do they have? How much have they learned and how sensitive are they to changes and situations? Do they realize when something is up? If so, do they have the wherewithal to do something to make things different from last time?

If you are the kind of writer that likes to write a lot of smaller works, ask the same kind of questions about your stories. Do you have a pattern you keep following? Can you sense when it is happening? If so, can you change that path to do something new? (Hint, hint, the answer is probably 'yes.')