Saturday, October 1, 2011

Hey, I'm a person too!

This morning was the first session of my church's general conference. The man in the middle of this picture is President Thomas S. Monson, our Prophet and head of the church. When he got up to speak this morning, he wore the same goofy smile as the one in the picture, and squealed out "Hello! I was wondering who I should get to substitute for me today!"

I love President Monson. He is such a spiritual man and truly cares about each and every member of the church, as well as those who are not of our faith. He is such an inspiration to me. But, if he didn't have that wonderful boyish personality to go with it all, I don't know if I would feel the same connection with him that I do.

Too often, especially in YA, the authoritative figure, or the one who's supposed to have all the answers, doesn't seem to have a personality. He or she seems other-worldly, as if the rules that apply to everyone else don't apply to them. They have no family, or it is never mentioned, and they don't seem to do anything but sit around and wait for the next scene they're in in your book. How boring is that??

President Monson is one of the many examples we have in real life of an incredibly inspirational person who is also an incredibly easy to relate to. I feel like President Monson is just like me, and that he went through the same process I am of strengthening my faith in God and his gospel. Shouldn't this be our goal when we're writing? Shouldn't we want our readers, and characters, to feel like they can relate to those characters? After all, they're people too! They have a backstory, families, hopes and dreams--shouldn't we give them all of that?

What are some of these characters you could relate to? Couldn't? Do you struggle making your 'authority' figures easy to relate to?


♥tg

1 comment:

  1. I'm LDS too and I totally get what you're saying. Charisma goes a long way, especially when that person has been through real life situations and uses them to inspire others instead of moping around, talking about how life was so hard for them. Taking action goes a long way, especially in books.

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