Helen Currie Foster
I know--we all know--people we love or hate who are a frustrating mystery to us. We have unanswered questions. If you've lost a parent, think of the questions you wish you'd asked, and whether (if you'd gotten answers) you could have gotten closer to solving the mystery of that parent.
Figuring out the answers to those questions serves as a strong plotline--but a frustrating one. Even when we have a basket of clues, the other person's reality eludes us.
Another plotline arises from a protagonist's effort to solve his or her own mystery.So, in the Alice MacDonald Greer mystery series, Alice's lifelong question (not that she focuses on it every minute) is--WHO AM I REALLY? Occasionally she tries to guess--HOW DO OTHERS SEE ME? AND HOW ACCURATELY? The reader knows Alice is probably wrong in those guesses, and that she forgets to ask herself, "HOW ACCURATE IS MY OWN ASSESSMENT OF MYSELF?"
Figuring out the answers to those questions serves as a strong plotline--but a frustrating one. Even when we have a basket of clues, the other person's reality eludes us.
Another plotline arises from a protagonist's effort to solve his or her own mystery.So, in the Alice MacDonald Greer mystery series, Alice's lifelong question (not that she focuses on it every minute) is--WHO AM I REALLY? Occasionally she tries to guess--HOW DO OTHERS SEE ME? AND HOW ACCURATELY? The reader knows Alice is probably wrong in those guesses, and that she forgets to ask herself, "HOW ACCURATE IS MY OWN ASSESSMENT OF MYSELF?"
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