Memories link, one to another, and form the playing field upon which we walk. Think about your last ten years…You don’t remember every detail. Some memories waft through your mind, sparked by a current circumstance or something someone said, or even a scent. A certain berry bush has a distinct smell that takes me way back to daycare, when I was very small. Every time I smell it, I’m suddenly only three feet tall. Music is the same. It takes us places, like the sci fi portal into another dimension. It’s odd, the things that remain in the memory. Some seem so disconnected, yet there they are. Every memory finds its way into the present because it is connected somehow. Without the connection, it is lost.
Now think of all the books you’ve read. What is it that has remained of those books? Do you remember the words that were spoken? The witty little phrases? Maybe. Do you remember how the book felt in your hands? Or the image on the cover? Well, I suppose that one might remain long, especially if you are a visual learner. Some stories remain because they touch us, where we live. We can relate. We feel them. But we don’t remember the exact words…in fact, in some cases, we don’t even remember the title of the book. What we remember is how we felt, while walking in the character’s shoes, or how they looked while we watched them from within the story. We remember how we felt when they said something to us or reacted and we wanted to stop them or slap them or hug them. We are relational creatures. If a character touches our lives, our hearts, our minds, they will remain. As writers, we have the opportunity to reach into the lives of people we’ve never met and touch them, where they live, to leave an impression that will link with their memories and remain a part of them. How cool is that?
