Eleanor Tatum

I allow others to blog about viruses, elections, supreme courts and tree murders, at least today. My title covers my immediate pain. I have not hugged my grand daughters for 262 days.

A temporary pain reliver is to return to my review of articles written 77 years ago. On page three Olive Higgins Prouty argues that characters need delineation. She was a published author of two novels which were produced as films, so maybe she know of what she preaches. Now, Voyager and Stella Dallas

An author’s character has various characteristics (there’s a pun hidden in there) and Prouty writes that there should not be any psychoanalysis here. She appears to claim that the reader should understand how and why the character acts by actions of the hero. Well said. I do wish I could write so clearly that little needs to be described.

That’s where I went wrong. I have read far too many romance novels where the “she-ro” is tall, strong, and delightful. Her words are used to show the reader her psychological misgivings. Her actions afford escape for the reader.

I should try to be a creator, a novelist, not a copyist.

Enough!