by Jamie A. Richardson from the October 31, 2022 issue
Tagline: Trick-or-treating with her granddaughter, Cathy gets a shock when her old crush opens the door and gives her the sweetest treat of all.
Apology: I'm sorry I've been MIA, but my subscription lapsed without my knowledge! LOL I only just got this Halloween issue. Rest assured, I'm back at my keyboard with my red pen ready.
Observations: This was a darling story that shone a light on the generation gap in regards to communication. I truly enjoyed seeing the granddaughter learn how to trick-or-treat. Adorable! However, I'm old enough to have a granddaughter that age, but writing an actual letter to someone to tell someone I was going out of town is not something I would ever do. Maybe Cathy only said that because she was flustered by John's presence.
Regardless, let's all make an effort to not apply outdated stereotypes to our older characters. For that matter, give some thought to creating any character that is not in your age group. One of my pet peeves is younger characters making cultural references that aren't age appropriate. For instance, a woman in her thirties probably wouldn't be familiar with The Brady Bunch. I'm listening to Stephen King's latest book, Fairy Tale, and the main character makes references to old movies constantly and King explained it by saying the hero's father always watched Turner Movie Classics. Okay, Mr. King, you justified the historic references and I'll give you a pass because you're one of the greatest writers of all time, however, I can see that you fell back on this because you're not up on current/recent pop culture enough to make your hero actually seem like he's 18. He's like a 70 year old in a young body.
Long story short, when creating characters, keep in mind their ages and match their actions, thoughts and references to that age. Do a little research and your character will be the richer and more realistic for it.
Photo by Glen Bowman via Flickr Creative Commons License
