Words of Redemption

This weekend, Sarah and I traveled to Seattle for the wedding of a college friend and former roommate of mine. The groom–a standup guy who was in our wedding–honored all of his groomsmen greatly by asking us to be a part of his wonderful wedding and by putting the whole crowd of us up in a beachfront house on Bainbridge Island. In addition to the calming sounds of the water, wonderful views across the Puget sound and a great vista on Mount Rainier (above), it was a blast being in the same house with some of my closest friends from college, a few of whom I hadn’t seen in years.

Being around people who I laughed, cried and lost sleep with is a great way to walk back through many volumes of memories of events we lived through together. From difficult days and nights, to the many unfortunate choices we all seem to make from the ages of 18-22, reliving the college days with those who were right beside you is a good way to be reminded of both how far you’ve come and how far you have still to go.

The men I spent time with this weekend are characters, each unique in their view of the world and their attitude towards life. They are people I know, with greater depth than sum of every conversation we’ve shared or experience we’ve lived.

We’ve battled and overcome much together.

We’ve succeeded and failed grandly together.

These men are friends, but they are also brothers.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother.

- William Shakespeare, Henry V.

And yes, some blood was shed over the years.

As a writer and a storyteller, these “People Memories”–memories centered around individuals who were important over an extended period of time–are a great inspiration to me. These memories, and the people in them, serve as the basis for how I see others and how I portray my “invented” characters to the world. They are, in many ways, both the true audience for my stories and the subjects and objects of them. Along with Sarah, these individuals have influenced how I see the world and the people in it far more than I could describe.

These men are brilliant, talented and worth knowing. You may not know them, but I think you should.

And I can’t imagine a better way to honor them and the impact they’ve made on my life than by writing about them.

Here’s to you gents. Cheers.¹

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Places, memorable ones, have a similar impact on writing. I’ll dig more into that next time.

In the meantime, a question for you: How do the people you’ve encountered affect your writing? Do you find yourself drawing character traits out of yourself or others and putting them on the page? Even still, do you construct entire characters around people you know?

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1. Metaphorical Alaskan Amber Ale or Redhook ESB in hand [↩]

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