Day 17 (12/31/11) 6:00 a.m.
The Protagonist
You need a strong protagonist. Most writers have a problem with creating a character who is larger than life, fully developed, and a consistent protagonist. Remember, your protagonist is your story’s major character. This is the person with whom your reader will identify. You want your readers to care about your protagonist. He or she is your new best friend.
Today is Saturday and the last day of the year. I wasn’t going to do these exercises on the weekends, but I woke up needing to see what Day 17 was about. I’ve been resisting the temptation to look ahead so that each prompt is like opening a present. When I got married twenty-five years ago, I told my husband that I wanted an endless stream of little gifts. I didn’t mean they had to be purchased and expensive, rather, I was asking for a way to know that I am special and valued. He never really understood what I was asking for, and until this moment, I probably didn’t understand it myself. Each morning, when I read and respond to one of these prompts, I give myself a little present. I get out of my way and get to know my characters.
Becoming best friends with my birth mother, Jane, has been a fantasy of mine since I was a young child. She has always been larger than life, capable of everything I required that I wasn’t getting. When my adoptive mom—Amom—was irritable or angry with me, my birth mom—Bmom—would have understood. She would have been to all of my swim meets, cheering me on at the sidelines. She would have been light hearted, fun loving, beautiful, and the perfect mother for me—if not for the unimaginable circumstances that forced my adoption. Until I was thirty, I believed my Bmom died giving birth to me.
Now, I have a chance to write about Jane the teenager, young wife, mother, adulteress, and divorcee. To tell her story as she might have told it; to let the reader and myself in on her motivation, her fears, hopes, and dreams. In spite of her decision to give me up, and quite possibly because of it, I care for this woman who as an adult had a desperate, sad quality to her life that made her interesting.
The favorite scene in my adoption memoir, Searching for Jane, Finding Myself, was when two of my brothers were standing over her grave, arguing about who she was. That was a pivotal moment for me because up until then I only had my older brother’s point of view. My youngest brother had a different experience, a different story, which made me realize that Jane was more than irritating, bitter, and irresponsible. I’m not suggesting she didn’t have issues, but she was also a survivor—a woman who did what she had to do. What she chose to do is what makes her interesting, especially given the post WWII era when she was coming of age.
What little I do know about Jane, the adult, got me to thinking about what she was like as a child and a young girl. What was her family like? What kind of relationship did she have with her parents? Who were her friends? How did she spend her time? What motivated her to get married at sixteen? That’s the Jane I want to write about. That’s my protagonist. As the saying goes, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” I am my Bmom’s daughter and for now, she’s my new best friend.
