Just this last week I had a conversation with an acquaintance about how everyone sees the world differently. I realize we could each go through the same experiences and come through on the other side remembering it differently. I mean, there will be a lot of similarities in what we describe happening, but the differences come with what stands out to each of us.
The same goes for a good book. I’ve read the same books as some of my family members only to come away from it with other pieces that stood out to me. We read the same story. In fact, in my family, we tend to pass books around. So, what makes a story resonate with me differently than them?
I have a few thoughts on that, but they all boil down to the fact that each of us are individuals. We all have different experiences and driving goals. When something we read or experience seems to touch on that, it sticks with us. The experiences I’ve had drive my perception of reality. While I can change my perception, it takes a lot of work.
This is something I’ve been thinking a lot about as I work to make my characters come alive in my current book project. I’ve written three chapters of my next book, and I’m trying to ensure each character has a unique voice. To do that, I’ve described a bit of their past. I’ve even got a few pages with my main characters where I treat it like an interview with them. I’ve learned some things that anger them or make them smile or make them happy. It was a great exercise.
At the same time, I found myself looking at some of the tough people I encounter in my daily life and even my day job. Now, I’m not building stories about them, but I have taken some time to figure out what I may be doing to contribute to their perception. Whether in a book or in real life, to be able to care about the character’s they can’t be just two-dimensional. We’re all interesting characters in our own stories.
Check out some of my books.
Malignance, my third book in my time travel series that began with Resonance and Dissonance, is on Amazon as a kindle and a paperback. That was a fun series to write, and for now, it is completed. I have also placed all three books from that series into one volume titled The Machina of Time.
My fantasy, A Map, a Mage, and a Sacrifice, was a fun book to write. It is set in a world with limited technology, but where sacrifice is a necessary element to magical power. The greater the pain and suffering, the greater the magical power generated. The few mages in power use voluntary sacrifice of the citizens to generate power they use to protect and defend the empire. But their rule may be coming to a close.
If you’re looking for a science fiction story, try my book The Promise of Dust, which takes place in a cloud city floating in the atmosphere of Venus. Or Progenitor’s Legacy: Deceit, which takes place many years in the future on a tidally locked world that orbits a red dwarf and has been reached by humanity in their search for the alien progenitors who seeded the galaxy with nano machines.
If a young adult science fiction is more to your liking, check out my series This New Earth, that starts with Demons of a Dead World and Secrets of a Dead World.
If you are looking for a young adult fantasy, check out my book The Threads Unbound.
DANIEL R. BURKHARD 