Through Their Eyes, Not Mine

      I hope you will all forgive me for my absence. The holidays did not give me all the writing time I wanted. But I'm back, and should be for good now.

      Over the past three weeks I realized something. I was having trouble writing in the POV of a character that used to come so easy to me. First, I blamed it on the scene needing to change. So I tried that. Then, I decided it was my problem. 

      A lot changes over two and a half years. I met the character a long time ago, and was of a different mindset. When I started writing the character, we connected. Easy. Simple. Not much to think about. I just opened the page and typed away his thoughts and feelings.

      We were similar.

      Now we're not.

      People change a lot over a few years. Circumstance changes how you see things, realizations helps you fix them. I am not what I once was, and I don't want to go back in the past. I want to live in today.

      I was deathly scared. I thought I'd have to go backwards. Get in the mindset I used to be in. And I didn't want to be there. That wasn't me anymore.

      All of my foolish worrying made me realize something: I may not be in that mindset anymore, but he is. That never changed. Only I did. And I had it all come to me so easily before that I dropped a crucial key to writing. I have to look through their eyes. Not mine. Not my brother's. Their eyes. It's how they see the world, not me. All writing is, is getting into their mindset. Not changing your own.

      I may have to work to get there, but it's not me. I just have get into character. And that character is not me.

- Kelsey Gulick