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Thursday, April 14, 2016

Plot Thread I Always Wanted to Write

For years, I've wanted to write a character who was adopted. I know why. I was adopted. :-) Throughout my life, I've met many, many other adoptees and it's interesting to me is how every single one of them has a different perspective. Seriously, there's not just two or three attitudes out there. Every person I've met has their own, specific one. Sure, the argument could be made that they're different points along a spectrum, but I don't look at it that way.

I've also met a woman who had a sibling given up for adoption, so I was able to talk to her, get to know her thoughts about that event. And I've met parents who've adopted children (as well as my own adoptive parents) so I've seen perspectives there as well. Added into all this was when I met my birth mother and how that impacted me.

This has been bubbling in the back of my mind for years, but I never had a character who was an adopted child show up. Until recently.

His name is Ryan. He's reached a level of success in his career that he hadn't expected to attain and he's enjoying it--and his life--to the fullest. And then, out of the blue, his birth mother contacts him and wants to meet him. To say Ryan is shaken is an understatement. It's while he's avoiding his personal turmoil that he meets his heroine. Heh!

I'm not actually writing his story yet because Ryan is the third story in a trilogy idea and I'm still working on story one, but I'm both looking forward to this chance and dreading it. The dread comes from the fear that I won't manage the complexity of emotion that adoptees have. I want to do this story, but I want to do it right.

I guess the only way my fears are laid to rest is when I'm actually writing this story. That's when I'll know one way or the other if I can pull it off.