POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

Atrayou and the Child Like Empress

By Nandy Ekle

“You must contact an earthling child,” the child-like empress says.

“An earthling child? Where do I find one?” Atrayou asks.

“You can only find an earthling child beyond the boundaries of Fantasia.”

This is one of the themes of the movie, The Neverending Story, one of my favorite children’s storiess. The theme simply means that your character must reach out to the reader. And so, how do we do that? How does a character reach beyond the boundaries of the page?

One of the first things to consider is who is the earthling child you are trying to reach? If you write romance, your audience is probably female. So your main character should be female. If you write for children, your character should be a child. Your character should be identifiable with your readers. They should have a lot of things in common.

When you connect with your reader, they will follow your character through the whole story. This is the object of your writing, to get the earthling child to go on the adventure with the character.

Congratulations. You have just received a post card from the muse.