Amanda Lamb: Lies That Bind

My main character, Maddie Arnette, is a television reporter, a widow and the mother of twins, a boy and a girl named Blake and Miranda. There are no spoilers here as you pretty much glean this information in the first pages of both books.

One of the notes I got early on from a writing friend who read bits and pieces of the first novel was: “Why don’t you eliminate the kids? The story would be a lot more linear and easier to tell without that distraction.”

Not only was it an interesting idea to “streamline” my book, but it made me think about real life. Sure, writing a story without additional characters would be a whole lot easier. Let’s face it—living would be easier and cheaper without children. But anyone who has children knows the richness they bring to our lives—an indescribable amount of joy, beauty, pain, and stress all mixed together. I’m pretty sure most parents are not interested in writing their children out of their lives.

So, while I respected my fellow writer’s idea and knew that it came from a place of genuinely wanting to make my story better, I rejected it. I decided in order for my character, Maddie Arnette, to be real to people she had to be juggling the same things a lot of regular people are, including raising children. It not only gives her more dimension, but it allows her to express the humility and the selflessness that we need to see in our characters in a fictional tale in order to connect with them.

My fictional children will continue to be part of my writing. And like real children, they will eventually grow up, go out into the world, and live their own lives. Let’s hope I’m still writing about them then …