I’ve been having a rough time with my novel “The Best Revenge” It’s not because the plot is weak or my characters aren’t fully rendered, they are, but what’s missing is the heart. What makes this story really worth telling? I mean it’s interesting, exciting, yes, but what is really new about this? Why read this novel over any other. On my walk to school today I think I got a piece of the heart of this story.
Joe or Adam, I still haven’t decided what the name of my main character will ultimately be, maybe both Adam Joseph Collins, I think that might work. His name at work is Adam, but his friends call him Joe because his father’s name is Adam as well and as a kid he was called Joey or AJ I’ll work on that, but point of it is he hates his father. His father didn’t abuse him per se but he was awful. The conflict here is real because no one wants to admit they hate their father. When Joe is given Tim’s case he’s force to reexamine the relationship he’s had with his own father.
We don’t get to choose our parents. A lot of things in life we don’t get much choice in. When bad things happen we can prey for the best, but things will happen as they will. It’s how we choose to respond to those things that make us who we are. If we are weak, then we’ll have the response of a weak person. But what choice to we have about who we are? We may not have any, or we may have all the choice in the world, the point is that these things are not easy to answer. If they were life would be easy. Joe is going to learn to live with his feelings about his father on his deathbed. Tim is going to have to live with bad choices he’s made when he killed his father.
But there is hope. We can at time change who we are. Joe does just that. While a lot of things happen to him Joe makes the touch chokes against the better advice of his friends and collogues and takes on Tim’s case, thus really taking on his own case, and changing who he is. He doesn’t want to be a heartless bantered. He wants to care for people. He wants passion for what he does. He doesn’t want to have to drag himself to work each morning. But in his current situation there is little he can do to change his outlook. When the opportunity presents itself he takes hold and goes for the ride of his life; literally. That’s why it’s an interesting story. That’s what people want to read about.
Every action has to go through this premise. So Let’s simplify it:
“We don’t choose our life, but we can choose how we life it”
This is theme of “The Best Revenge” and it makes itself evident in every action the main characters undertake.
