As the author, aren't you responsible for your characters? Shouldn't you advise him not to stay there or else he will be ensnared...
Since it has been in the family for so many years, I guess he will not meet a ghostly girl and fall in love...
Be fun to see which way it twists and turns
:)
Did anyone ever tell you, Arthur, that you rub the gilt off the gingerbread? Ha ha...you think you know me and all my limitations...Actually, my wife said something similar today...I always aspired to be a man of mystery and not predictable. I'm such a failure. This writing thing - you never know what you're going to do and you only hope somehow it's new :)
Yes, I did let my enjoyment of letting my imagination go wild dictate what I wrote.
I actually felt , after posting my comment, that I had crossed the line. I would hate it if someone did it to me - so my sincere apologies.
I usually use the standard, that if I feel I am being 'clever' it means I am not and I resist the urge. This time it seems I ignored the signals until it was too late. My only excuse is that I had just come out of a root canal without a narcotic injection and was not listening to my own inner voice.
Now I am looking forward to seeing how you handled the story.
btw - as to your aspirations, it is very much how I see myself. I only want to be predictable in how I respond to ethical/moral situations. If I remain true to myself, then I cannot avoid becoming predictable to those who know me well.
No, no, My friend, I was teasing you - you said nothing wrong -btw, I sympathize with your oral surgery - can be very painful and all those meds...Ugh!!!
I often adopt the persona of the misunderstood, conflicted victim and most of my heroes behave the same way - surprise? LOL!! My wife constantly points this out because of course it's true, but it's also part of my voice and comes out in my poetry and I might add in the narrative of how I see myself in my personal life - I'm being very honest here because I often use a style of language that can make it seem as if I'm pontificating - Hate when I do that - it's an affectation I picked up at university and it still persists which is no doubt why I can write so realistically about the campus scene and the angst of various professors, lol.
I was actually complimenting you as usual on your unfailing instincts for grasping the locus of the narrative and predicting its eventual outcome. And I do appreciate it also when you spot a typo or ( horrors) an elliptical thought or grammatical error - @creatr used to do that and I appreciated it very much because I'm writing without another set of eyes reviewing my work. Mind you, I found it interesting when working on my first novel that an editor made so few corrections - I actually went back and reviewed what I wrote knowing that I tend to hurry through occasionally and not take enough time.
Such a long explanation for such a wee comment :) Phew!
Actually, your comment was brave - and it helped me realise that in the ways you described, we are similar.
The one thing I am, which I do not usually mention, is quick to anger, but also quick to regret it and apologise...if I was even a little wrong in my own eyes.
The major difference between us, is that you found someone to love you...for a long time.
It is a strange fact that if you read the story of my life, you would say 'this guy is weird and surely even half of it cannot be true' and I've had some say I have lived an interesting life. I have, for I never went along with the attitude that I must be the same as everyone else...and I think I can create some stories that are weird or interesting, and yet, basically, I am a very boring person....which is why women tend to want me as a friend, not as a lover (or at least, not for long). It is why all my characters hate being told they are 'nice'.
I think honesty is so important to being authentic but I struggle with it. One of my friends was totally honest - he was an admirer of Albert Camus and identified with Mersault in The Outsider (L'Etranger). I made stabs at following his rigid code but could never quite do it - if ever. I like things to run smoothly - even if insulted, I try to smooth it over until unfortunately I arrive at the end of my patience and then, watch out! I think I arrived at the end of my patience so many times in my life that my family probably thinks of me like a bully-tough guy - yeah, I kind of identify with Robert DeNiro, lol. But when my better angels are in control I'm embarrassingly sensitive and vulnerable and since I have no control at that point, I feel socially awkward. Sometimes it's easier to punch out someone than to empathize - makes me wonder how I write anything at all, to be honest, but somewhere inside a real person's hiding ...I suppose.
BTW, I forgot to respond to your other part about relationships. I hear you re women, and my pet peeve is hearing someone refer to me as 'a good man'. I don't know why but it seems so patronizing and dismissive but I'm sure that's just me. As for long relationships, I think it's simple - don't leave. Yeah...simple, basic and probably trite, but that's all I've got, Arthur on that :)