Puppets
Puppets
A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object — a puppet— in real time to create the illusion of life (www.wikipedia.org).
Don't writers do the same thing? Aren't characters just puppets to mimic life? Aren't they fun to throw around in the strangest of situations? They're still the same puppet, and they'll always be the same puppet. A zebra doesn't change its stripes and puppets don't change the fact that they can't talk back. Puppeteers do the talking for them.
Writers do the talking for the characters.
Holly grows up. At the age of 20 she gives birth to her first child, a girl. She names her daughter Anabelle.
A.) Anabelle grows into a beautiful woman, and can afford a beautiful townhouse with her husband when they reach the age of 24. She attended state college, to stay close to home, and received highest honors in all of her courses. She has a good job and two perfect children. Her husband works out of their home, but is equal to Anabelle in all degrees of life, financial included. He is the perfect stay-at-home dad to her perfect children.
Anabelle dies at the end of this with no real fulfillment. She never wanted children, but her husband did so she obliged. She worked as a secretary for a man who tried to seduce her multiple times. She hated what she did, but it paid the bills. She was able to be buried next to Holly in St. Matthew’s Cemetery, next to the church she attended weekly.
B.) Anabelle is diagnosed with bi-polar disorder when she is 12. The medication makes her better, but she doesn’t feel like herself. She skips for a few weeks and feels much better, but the manic sets in. She can’t sleep, can’t eat, all she can do is run. Run, run away from everything she has been so afraid of for so long. The manic stops; she can’t take it. When the ‘blue’ sets in, she starts to fear again. She knows if she takes the pills, it will stop for a while and then she’ll stop the pills and she can run again.
When she is 16, she swallows all of her pills with a bottle of vodka she found near Holly’s bedside. Holly is the one to find her, bloodshot eyes and messy hair from a recent manic episode. St. Matthew’s Cemetery won’t accept her because she is not a Christian. Only Holly knows she died with a smile on her face.
C.) Anabelle starts dating girls when she is 14. Holly would never approve. When she is 19, she comes out to her mother, fiancée by her side. They are shunned, but marry when Anabelle is 23. Holly is not at the ceremony, but Anabelle’s father walks her down the aisle wearing the biggest smile she had ever seen. She and her partner never adopt children, but are perfectly content with each other’s company.
Anabelle dies at 67, never knowing her mother had forgiven her reluctantly on her own deathbed 27 years previous. However, she passes with the faith of knowing she could make it in society as a member of a minority. She donated her body to science. Her partner dies a year after, and her body is also donated in Anabelle’s memory.
D.) Holly dies when Anabelle is 2. The little girl didn't know what to do with herself, because Mommy was so cold and Mommy was always so warm when she cuddled with Anabelle on those cold winter nights and Mommy wasn't supposed to be cold.
Anabelle realizes her mother committed suicide when she is 15. Didn't she want her baby girl and her chocolate eyes that mirrored Holly's so well? Why did she do it? Her adoptive parents didn't know anything, other than the fact that the 22-year-old was found with a bottle of pills and a gun in her left hand just in case the Prozac didn't work.
Anabelle doesn't know what to do with herself, so she starts hacking into her left thigh as a form of stress relief. It works.
E.) Anabelle isn't born. Holly miscarriages in her fourth month and lets out a sigh of relief. She was going to wait for marriage, but her supposed loving boyfriend wasn't that patient. She didn't want children anyway.
So Anabelle never let herself down or expired prematurely or let Holly down or didn't even have the guts to expire prematurely. She just never existed.
So what's the happy ending? Decide for yourself. You're not a puppet.
Don't writers do the same thing? Aren't characters just puppets to mimic life? Aren't they fun to throw around in the strangest of situations? They're still the same puppet, and they'll always be the same puppet. A zebra doesn't change its stripes and puppets don't change the fact that they can't talk back. Puppeteers do the talking for them.
Writers do the talking for the characters.
Holly grows up. At the age of 20 she gives birth to her first child, a girl. She names her daughter Anabelle.
A.) Anabelle grows into a beautiful woman, and can afford a beautiful townhouse with her husband when they reach the age of 24. She attended state college, to stay close to home, and received highest honors in all of her courses. She has a good job and two perfect children. Her husband works out of their home, but is equal to Anabelle in all degrees of life, financial included. He is the perfect stay-at-home dad to her perfect children.
Anabelle dies at the end of this with no real fulfillment. She never wanted children, but her husband did so she obliged. She worked as a secretary for a man who tried to seduce her multiple times. She hated what she did, but it paid the bills. She was able to be buried next to Holly in St. Matthew’s Cemetery, next to the church she attended weekly.
B.) Anabelle is diagnosed with bi-polar disorder when she is 12. The medication makes her better, but she doesn’t feel like herself. She skips for a few weeks and feels much better, but the manic sets in. She can’t sleep, can’t eat, all she can do is run. Run, run away from everything she has been so afraid of for so long. The manic stops; she can’t take it. When the ‘blue’ sets in, she starts to fear again. She knows if she takes the pills, it will stop for a while and then she’ll stop the pills and she can run again.
When she is 16, she swallows all of her pills with a bottle of vodka she found near Holly’s bedside. Holly is the one to find her, bloodshot eyes and messy hair from a recent manic episode. St. Matthew’s Cemetery won’t accept her because she is not a Christian. Only Holly knows she died with a smile on her face.
C.) Anabelle starts dating girls when she is 14. Holly would never approve. When she is 19, she comes out to her mother, fiancée by her side. They are shunned, but marry when Anabelle is 23. Holly is not at the ceremony, but Anabelle’s father walks her down the aisle wearing the biggest smile she had ever seen. She and her partner never adopt children, but are perfectly content with each other’s company.
Anabelle dies at 67, never knowing her mother had forgiven her reluctantly on her own deathbed 27 years previous. However, she passes with the faith of knowing she could make it in society as a member of a minority. She donated her body to science. Her partner dies a year after, and her body is also donated in Anabelle’s memory.
D.) Holly dies when Anabelle is 2. The little girl didn't know what to do with herself, because Mommy was so cold and Mommy was always so warm when she cuddled with Anabelle on those cold winter nights and Mommy wasn't supposed to be cold.
Anabelle realizes her mother committed suicide when she is 15. Didn't she want her baby girl and her chocolate eyes that mirrored Holly's so well? Why did she do it? Her adoptive parents didn't know anything, other than the fact that the 22-year-old was found with a bottle of pills and a gun in her left hand just in case the Prozac didn't work.
Anabelle doesn't know what to do with herself, so she starts hacking into her left thigh as a form of stress relief. It works.
E.) Anabelle isn't born. Holly miscarriages in her fourth month and lets out a sigh of relief. She was going to wait for marriage, but her supposed loving boyfriend wasn't that patient. She didn't want children anyway.
So Anabelle never let herself down or expired prematurely or let Holly down or didn't even have the guts to expire prematurely. She just never existed.
So what's the happy ending? Decide for yourself. You're not a puppet.