Where The Journey Takes Us

Most of you know that my background is in television news. I was a reporter and anchor as well as a producer for both morning and evening news shows for many years. All those years telling other people's stories, watching their actions and seeing the results really helped me define who I was in the grand scheme of things. It also showed me the kinds of characters I wanted to write about from a fictional standpoint.

For me, writing is all about the journey. Every character has a story to tell, but for me the story is less about Point A and Point B than the journey getting from one point to another, and I don't think that journey has to change every single thing about the person.

Take my favorite movie heroine: Tally Atwater from 'Up Close and Personal'. She was a horrible reporter, a horrible journalist in the beginning. She was afraid of the camera, she didn't know what to say, she focused on all of the wrong elements.

In news, as in fiction, the story is about the facts, but more importantly how those facts impact the person. For Tally, in 'real' life she was the lifeline. She raised her sister, she paid the bills. She knew if they were going to get anywhere she was going to have to take them. She was afraid of all that responsibility and that fear held her back - at least at first - from what she really wanted. And then, in the middle of a crisis, she found herself in front of the camera...but more than that, she learned who she was behind the camera, too. It changed how she approached not only her job but her life.

It's the same in real life. Sometimes we can't see the forest for the trees standing in our way. And it's the same in my fiction. I like a strong heroine. A woman who knows what she wants and isn't afraid to go after it...but that strength needs to be tempered with a little fear, otherwise there is no journey. As with Tally from my favorite movie, the journey showcases that inner turmoil which builds into a strength that cannot be broken.

What about you - what is your favorite part of a story? The journey? Or something else?