Edith here, exulting in spring flowers.
Wickeds, we’re continuing the theme of success. But we – and our characters – don’t always succeed. Let’s look at the flip side of the question from two weeks ago. Pick one protagonist in one book. Share something she tried to do but failed at, and how she dealt with the failure. Go!
Julie: Failure is part of the game for our characters, don’t you think? If they did everything perfectly our books would be boring. Biggest failure, without giving away a plot point? In With A Kiss I Die, Sully makes several assumptions that bring her down the wrong path. The assumptions are a failure of imagination.
Barb: Jane Darrowfield from Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody, has great and good friends and a successful career behind her. But she is estranged from her son, and this enormous failure at the one thing she cared most about succeeding at, represents a huge, permanent wound to her soul.
Edith: In Charity’s Burden, Rose Carroll fails to figure out the killer before a second victim is murdered. The police failed, too, of course. The fact that she successfully apprehends the villain ameliorates her sorrow about the second death a bit.
Jessie: In my Beryl and Edwina series Beryl has led a life of adventure but has failed to find that one thing that holds her interest for long. She is well known but almost no one knows her well. By admitting to herself that she needs to slow down the hectic pace of her life she finds just what she has always been looking for by helping to solve a mystery and by spending time with Edwina.
Sherry: I’m really excited about Let’s Fake a Deal which comes out on July 30, 2019. Like Julie, I don’t want to give away any plot points, but Sarah has something to contend with that she hasn’t had to in the past. It has her doing a lot of thinking.
Readers: How do you deal failure, small or large?
I think the main way to deal with failures is to not consider them failures but learning experiences. Also you can’t let one bad experience get you down. You have to pick yourselves up by the boot straps and carry on. I will say, having a supporting partner helps too. Not feeling like you have to carry it all while holding it in can’t be easy. Sometimes it takes someone else to point out to us that things aren’t as gloom or as bad as we perceive them to be.
2clowns at arkansas dot net
As my Hugh says, “Oh, great, another f***ing growth experience,” except he doesn’t use asterisks, of course. ;^)
Wow, Kay you just wrote what I was going to write. I haven’t had many real failures in my life, but when it happens, I let myself feel bad for a little bit, try to figure out why I failed, try to figure out how to not let it happen again, and then shrug my shoulders and get on with life. What else can you do? Wallow forever? Life’s too short for that.
That’s the way to go.
I can’t get too specific about Sally’s failures – but let’s just say she falls victim to some serious lapses in judgment, both in ROOT OF ALL EVIL and the upcoming HEAVEN HAS NO RAGE. Hopefully she’ll learn from them (well, I’m the one in charge, so she’d better!).
Me, I tend to take some time to lick my wounds. Then figure out what I could have done better – and what I need to do in the future.
We all need that time, Liz. Can’t wait for the new book!
I tried to learn from failure and move on. I’m better about it than I was, but not always.
I don’t think anybody is always, Mark!
I didn’t deal with failure at all well for many years. Then I set myself up for failure by FEAR of failure.I have enough years and experience to have 20/20 hindsight and know that if I did not fail due to not trying, at least when I did try, I know that I tried and I learned from the experience, I am still working on it, though!
We all have so much to work on!