Living The Dream

About a week ago, I had come home from work and was relaxing. A friend of mine called to chat and asked what I was doing. I told him that I was in bed on my laptop, listening to movie reviews while playing video games, and petting my cat, who was curled up against my thigh. He told me "you are living the dream" (and he wasn't being sarcastic, either).

I kind of laughed at the remark. It by no means sounded glorious. My friend is getting his second master's degree and planning on getting a doctorate, and yet he's envying my life. When I sat down and thought about it though, I realized how incredibly happy I was. Not that my friend envied what I was doing, but just that I really enjoyed each of the things going on.

I may not have the most glorious life in the world, but I am en route to having a damn happy one. And ultimately, I'll take joy over prestige.

This is one of those posts that applies to people and to characters. For people, all the info is up there. With your characters, understanding their goals is crucial. What do they think they want? What do they actually want? How far are they willing to go o achieve their goals, and how far astray are they willing to go on a tangent? If you force characters to do things they wouldn't for the sake of your story, either change your character or change your plot.