As this summer draws to a close, students are returning to classrooms, a few sleepy leaves are beginning to fall, and my time as a regular contributor to this blog is coming to an end. It has been a WONDERFUL few months of working closely with our lovely Claire and getting to know many of you through classes and the Apprenticeship Mentoring Sale, and I hope to keep seeing you in the months ahead! Many thanks for all your kind thoughts and words as we move into this new season together.
As I write this post, I am of course preoccupied with farewells and the types of endings and beginnings our characters experience.
Farewells are often filled with different emotions that can feel confusingly inextricable, like grief, excitement, anxiety, and hope. These goodbyes invite breaks in the narrative that can serve as useful times of change and evolution, pointing our characters in fresh directions to move the plot forward. Without goodbyes, there are no stakes in the game, and our characters could never grow into the complex people we know them to be.
Perhaps greater than what a farewell leaves behind is the opportunity toward which it propels our characters.
Goodbyes are chances to shake off lingering attitudes or habits that no longer serve our characters and offer them a kind of rebirth into an ever-changing world. With this week’s prompts, I encourage you to think about the things your character is ready to leave behind and about the opportunities that new space affords them.
Where is a farewell leading your character?
First things first, consider a time you said goodbye to something in the last month. This could be big, like a relationship, or small, like a lost pen. Whatever the subject of your farewell, think about the space it left behind and how you have filled it. Have you taken more time for yourself, found a replacement, or realized you never needed it at all? Write for twelve minutes.
Transitioning into our characters’ lives, think back to a time your character said goodbye to something in their childhood. Perhaps they lost a favorite toy, moved houses, or had a falling out with a friend. Settle into the grief of that farewell and the gap it left open. Feel how it affects their very body and consumes their thoughts, for however long a time, and write for six minutes.
In the present day, how does your character remember that childhood goodbye? Do they remember it at all? Maybe the grief has faded to a dull ache, felt only on dark and silent nights, or maybe they realized that farewell was for the best, however much it hurt at the time. Perhaps they even celebrate that once grief-laden moment, privy to some new secret that turned their memory on its head. Write for seven minutes.
Now, I invite you to consider what your character is most afraid of losing. To what person, idea, or item does your character utterly refuse to say goodbye? Sink into the emotion, whether it be love, obsession, or something else, that connects your character to the thing they fear losing so much that they’re not sure where their identity ends and that thing begins. Now, take it away. Write for ten minutes.
Okay, that last one was kind of mean. Sorryyyy. As a balm, think of something your character IS ready to let go of, something that no longer serves them. Maybe they have outgrown a toxic family member, are ready to graduate from school, or need to let go of a harmful memory that haunts them at night. Catch your character in a moment of self-awareness, whether alone or with another character, and allow them to say goodbye. Write for eight minutes.
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KAY TEEKELL is Claire’s Summer Communications Associate and fellow creative writer. She has five years of writing and editing experience that ranges from content writing for blogs and magazines to grant writing for nonprofit organizations. Kay is passionate about the power of storytelling and strives to amplify voices that might otherwise be forgotten. She is excited to use her artistic and literary skills in her professional aspirations and will continue to develop her talents for the rest of her life.