Ages and ages and AGES ago, a reader by the name of sigh_for_sigh made a comment in one of her reviews on Twilighted that my one-shots were mostly very happy and not very angst-filled. Of course, this was back when my one-shot repertoire was “The Talk,” “Form 1040,” and “The Family Cullen.”
This made me think. I don’t consider myself as one who leans one way or the other when it comes to drama or cheer; I try in my writing to balance whatever is needed for that particular story and that particular character in that moment. But it made me realize that the reason for the cheerfulness was the nature of the character I was writing. My comment in return was that I was writing Carlisle, and that one, these one-shots take place when he is at his most content, surrounded by his family, and two, it takes a very long time to crack Carlisle up.
Carlisle is one of the steadiest characters I’ve ever written. In a way, even though I find Edward’s voice harder to channel, he is a bit more like the young adult protagonists I usually write. Impetuous, mercurial, easily agitated. As an author, this makes life easy—if your character is easily worked up, you can throw them curve balls and let them make decisions which alter the plot quickly.
This is not so with Carlisle. Carlisle is an over-thinker, a man who examines every angle, and who tends to simmer before becoming too angry, or sad. So to take Carlisle on a journey that results in his making a rash decision—even when his journey begins nearly at his breaking point!—takes time. And of course, one of the issues with this decision is that while it is rash in a way (even to the point that he will describe it as such to Bella almost ninety years later) it is also completely inevitable.
But it takes time to take him to the brink.
I owe great thanks to Openhome on this one (I always do, but this one especially) for helping me trim this one down to something with actual flow.
As an extra, I found myself listening to a single song while doing the edits on this chapter. I don’t usually have soundtracks, and I’m easily annoyed by authors who suggest songs that go with their chapters, so this is somewhat hypocritical of me, but if you so choose, you can hop over to my tumblr page and experience it for yourself.
Happy Reading.
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