Saturday, April 30, 2011

A to Z Challenge Day 26: Zany characters & Zen

I can't believe today is the last day of the A to Z April Blogging Challenge!  Thank you to the wonderful people hosting this blogging event, it's been a lot of fun!  I've met some great new people, am now following some terrific blogs, and I've also met a bunch of new people on Twitter, an unexpected side bonus.  I'd like to thank everyone who has come to visit, left comments, and decided to follow my blog - I appreciate it so much.  I hope you'll keep coming back even though the challenge is over after today.  I didn't think I'd know what to do with my blog once the challenge was finished, but I've decided to start posting my book reviews here instead of on HubPages.  I'm also going to write more about my writing, since I'm about halfway through working on my novel.  And with summer coming, I'm hoping to have lots of adventures, so I'm sure I'll be writing about those, too.

My two Z topics are completely unrelated, but they're what popped into my head this morning when I sat down to write.

Zany characters - I love zany characters in books.  I think they work best as the best friend or sidekick, because when the main character is too zany, it can be hard to follow their train of thought, or why they're doing something, because they're all over the place.  But as a sidekick, they can add great comedic relief.  You never know what they're going to do or say next, what crazy ideas they'll come up with, or how they'll act in a certain situation.  One of my favorite zany characters is Lula from the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich.  She's so unpredictable, can be completely inappropriate and over the top, but whenever she's with Stephanie, you know they're going to get into some crazy situation that's going to have you laughing out loud.  Those characters are a lot of fun to read, and although I've never really written one, I'm sure they're a blast to write - you can let your inner child out to play, have them say the things that everyone thinks but won't say, or that your main character isn't willing to do or say. 

Zen - I'm not necessarily a zen person, but I'm working on it.  I used to be...well, I wouldn't say I was necessarily high strung, but I got worked up easily, got upset easily, and a bad mood would stick with me no matter how hard I tried to shake it.  I let negativity and depression have a big affect on my life, and let other people have too much influence over me.  There have been a lot of little things lately - situations, people, circumstances, etc that have shown me how much I've changed over the last year, and how far I've come.  I feel like I've grown up a lot, and I'm proud of that fact.  It hasn't been easy - I've often been my own worst enemy and my own biggest obstacle, but I'm learning and I've come a long way.  I don't know if I'll ever be a totally zen person - there are still things that irritate me, people that get on my nerves, situations that make me uncomfortable - but I'm a hell of a lot closer to it than I was last year at this time.  I'm learning to just let go and live, take things as they come, accept things, circumstances and people, and I'm a lot happier for it.


I hope you all have a great Saturday.  I'm off to the library in a bit - it's beautiful and warm out, I can't wait to get outside!

2 comments:

  1. You're right - zany characters work and I too love the Stephanie Plum series. And she's pretty zany too. Great post for Z.

    ReplyDelete

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~Marie

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