“At the Bottom of the Pit” by Joan Y. Edwards
There he is. He’s a character in your book. You don’t know him very well yet. But you will. Everything has gone bad for him in the last 21 days. The more he looks at it like that, it gets even worse. Every which way he turns. He has to fight off negative thinking and he keeps getting in deeper trouble. He used to have simple bills. Now his mortgage is past due. He got fired from his job. His girlfriend is in jail. If he can’t escape from here before the police arrive, he will be in jail, too. Trouble is everywhere in his mind, body, and surroundings. It’s not yet in his soul. If he doesn’t do something quickly, his soul may be lost, too.
God said, “Ask and you shall receive,.” However, God didn’t say when or what he was sending. The character didn’t get an email or phone call from God yet. His phone didn’t ring. So all he can do is take this on faith that he’ll escape.
He is doing his best. If something bad happens and he is doing his best, then where does he place the blame? Whose fault is it that his life is this way at this particular moment? Whose fault is it that he is in a wonderful human body and his mind is flipping out on him with fright? If all this stress keeps surrounding him, his wonderful “one hoss shay” that was built for a hundred years may show signs of imperfection. Its flaws may cause it to crumble. Hevneeds soft pillows of love to heal…pillows of love come from God and his Universe.
My nerves are shot from trying to control everything that’s spiraling out of my control. I never had control. I just thought I did. My energy is zapped to 1%.
Your character has to arrive at the bottom of a bottomless pit with no hope of being saved before he changes and figures out a way to solve his problems, to accept responsibility, and to get on with his life. To succeed at long last.
Like in real life, he needs an “aha” moment that shows him the answer. He also needs the courage to try a new way. Even if it is not foolproof, he believes this new way has a good chance of working.
Good luck in getting your characters in and out of predicaments in amazing and surprising ways.
Celebrate you.
Never Give Up
Joan Y. Edwards
Copyright © 2014 Joan Y. Edwards
Dear Joan,
I could not stop reading this. Wow! It is fantastic. It makes one think about their characters, about writing and about life. Thank you for writing this and sharing it. You are wonderful! Hoping you are filled with all the hope you give others!!!
Dear Karen,
Thanks for writing. I’m glad that you couldn’t stop reading this. That means that I had you in suspense, that you wondered what was going to happen to the character. Hurray!
God filled me with information and experience so that my life wasn’t as deep down in despair. I feel better. Actually, I felt better after writing this blog post in draft form.
Funny how sometimes, writing about an experience is the best medicine.
Celebrate you and the joy you give to others, especially to me.
Never Give Up
Joan
Joan, this way of setting up a story line reminds me of Dick Francis. His wonderful books put apparently ordinary people into such terrible situations. They then find the resources to climb out of the pit.
So, have you written the first chapter?
🙂
Bob
Dear Dr. Bob,
Thanks for writing and sharing that my way of setting up a story line reminds you of Dick Francis, author of horse-racing mysteries(I looked it up in Wikipedia). This is all I’ve written. I wrote it when I got scared a few weeks ago and didn’t know which way to turn. Everything turned out okay, but it was frightening. I said so many “Our Fathers” that the route to heaven was filled with them. I had nothing else to rely on but my faith in God that I was going to make it through. I figure that’s the point our characters need to get to before they change.
Writers get characters into trouble; they can also get them out of trouble or just release the character and he will save himself.
Celebrate you and your love of people.
Never Give Up
Joan
Joan, you’ve generated a resource you can use for the rest of your life. Next time you feel yourself sliding down into that black hole, just remember, this occasion had felt hopeless, but that passed and is now behind you. You survived it once, you can survive it again.
All things are change.
🙂
Bob
Dear Dr. Bob,
Thanks for writing. You are right. I did generate a resource I can use the next time I feel myself sliding down into that black hole, I can remember that it lasted only for a time…like Dr. Robert Schuller says, “Tough Times Don’t Last, Tough People Do.” That was the first positive thinking book I read during another deep hole moment in my life.
I appreciate your sending more hope my way.
Celebrate you.
Never Give Up
Joan
Joan,
You kept putting your character deeper and deeper in a dark hole.I’m sorry you had to experience whatever you did, to find this writing lesson to share with us. Thank you for all the help you give. Can we help you sometimes?
Dear Mona,
Thanks for writing. I believe we all experience times when we have similar feelings of emotion as portrayed in my blog post. Writing down my feelings somehow helped me to release on the emotions and let go of the fear that encompassed me to know and understand that it was going to get better. I latched onto the slightest hope and then took action that came from that small voice within me. I did research and figured out what caused my problem and the problem went away.I was so scared at first, I was afraid of finding out what caused the problem. I was afraid it was going to continue or even get worse. Because it had never happened before..
What happened was I had a gum graft. Everything seemed to be going all right, when blood poured out of my mouth. It was an avalanche of blood pouring into the kitchen sink….a big bowlful of blood. My blood. What I didn’t know was that ibuprophen can cause free-bleeding. I knew that baby aspirin helps stop strokes because it makes the blood thinner. The doctor had prescribed it for me for pain following my gum graft surgery. He didn’t know that ibuprophen would do that either. It may not happen with everyone. But it did with me.
They gave me four before my surgery. And I had two or 3 each day afterwards. My face was all bruised-looking for a week. Then blood gushed out. I called the periodontist and he told me to wet a tea bag and hold it firmly against the place where he cut pieces of tissue in the top of my mouth for 20 minutes. If that didn’t stop the bleeding, to call him back and he would meet me at his office.
Luckily, the bleeding stopped. I went to see the periodontist. He couldn’t figure out what had happened. He said the ibuprophen wouldn’t have caused it.
Once I discovered online and from my pharmacist that ibuprophen had probably done it. I stopped taking it and my bruising went away and the blood clotted normally. I called the periodontist and told him that ibuprophen can cause free bleeding.
So if you’re having surgery of any kind, be careful about taking aspirin or ibuprophen. As I know of, Tylenol doesn’t cause free bleeding, but too much acetiminophen is not good for you, either. It can interact with medications that affect the liver. If someone is taking a medication to thin the blood, it can make it too strong and thin it too much.
Mona, each time you read one of my blog posts, you help me. Each time you leave a comment, you help me. If you smile when you think about me, this helps me, too.
Celebrate being you. This helps me, too.
Never Give Up
Joan
.
Joan, you were given the ibuprofen to manage post-operative pain, right?
It is possible to use completely psychological tools for managing pain, and they have no side effects.
Before my hip chop operation, I often experienced 7 or 8 /10 pain sensations. However, I was not hurting, not in pain, not suffering because I used mindfulness. There is a wonderful 2-CD program by Jon Kabat-Zinn that teaches this. I have often recommended this for my chronic pain clients. And I also use guided imagery myself, and teach it to my clients, for pain management.
🙂
Bob
Dear Dr. Bob,
Yes, it was for pain and also to reduce swelling..I know mindfulness works. I’ll check out Jon Kbat-Zinn’s CD program for next time. I also used your guided imagery CD to help me.
Thanks for writing and also for sharing your resources with me. I appreciate you very much.
Celebrate you.
Never Give Up
Joan
Hi Joan,
Your positive outlook on life is your greatest resource when trying to climb out of a deep dark pit. You made it out and will do so again, if necessary! Thanks for sharing with us.
Dear Linda,
Thank you for writing. Thank you for saying that my positive outlook on life is my greatest resource when trying to climb out of a deep dark pit. I did make it out. Hip Hip Hooray! And you’re right, I’ll do it again if necessary. I’m hoping to avoid that same pit. Perhaps the next pit will have built in ledges for easier climbing. God was good to me. At the bottom I could not see him. But knowing he was there with me, helped me find my way out.
Celebrate you
Never Give Up
Joan
Dear Joan,
I recently read a book titled When God Winks. You blog was a God Wink. Thank you for giving me so much to think about.
June
Dear June,
Thank you for writing.
When God Winks sounds like an intriguing book. I’m glad that my blog was a God wink. You’re welcome for my giving you a lot to think about. Life is definitely worth pondering. I’m glad you’re in my life. Thanks for being there.
Celebrate you.
Never Give Up
Joan
Poor dear is in a heap of trouble.
Dear Sarah,
Thank you for writing. It’s good to hear from you. Yes, this character is in a heap of trouble. Somehow I’ve left her in the lurch. I will help her later on, but I believe she’s probably figured it out by now. I’ll chronicle her story in a book one day.
Celebrate you.
Never Give Up
Joan