By Evelyn David
My son got married a week ago. His bride is everything I could hope for. It was
a beautiful wedding, to be held outdoors in a gorgeous setting. It rained five minutes before the
ceremony was to begin, but stopped fairly quickly. The hotel staff dried the
seats and a rainbow emerged just before the bridal procession began. Blessed
indeed.
During the dinner, my son gave a brief speech that left me close
to tears. He thanked his bride's parents for the warm, loving welcome to their
family, then turned to thank my husband and me. Surprisingly he made special mention of an
event that had happened 20 years earlier.
It was his first time at
sleep-away camp. He was scheduled for a four-week session, but on Parents
Visiting Day, two weeks in, he said he hated it and wanted to come home. We spent several
hours trying to convince him to stay, and finally agreed that if he still hated
it in a week, we would pick him up. He thought that was fair and to be honest,
since even he acknowledged that he was actually enjoying himself at least some
of the time, I felt sure that he would decide to remain the last two
weeks. But seven days later, he called to say he wanted to come home and my
husband duly drove two hours each way to retrieve the reluctant camper. A deal
was a deal.
I got a fair amount of criticism from other parents when I
told them the story, but my gut instinct was that this was what our son needed.
Conventional wisdom about making him "tough it out" didn't fit my child. So I
was especially touched when in his wedding speech, our son talked about the love
and support we'd always given him, including he laughed, picking him up from
camp.
What does all this have to do with writing? It's to trust your
instincts when it comes to your characters and the stories you have to tell.
Ignore the conventional wisdom about what works and what doesn't, what's currently
popular and what's not. Create the world that works for you. You know YOU
best. Believe in your talent, creativity, and determination, even when, or
especially when, faced with criticism or rejection.
Trust your gut. Who knows. You might even get thanked later.
Marian, the Northern half of Evelyn David
