Friends

Thelma & Louise. Cagney & Lacey. Starsky & Hutch.

OK, so maybe that last doesn't quite fit the direction I was going with this, but I was out late last night celebrating my birthday a day early and I'm just too tired-headed this morning to think up another female-duo pairing. Sure, you've got your Lucy & Ethel, but the show wasn't named such so that doesn't count. (Btw, funniest line of the night last night? One of the guys said, "The older I get, the better Ethel Mertz looks to me." I think that should be on a T-shirt.)

So where am I going with this? Well, I guess I'm going toward this week's theme here at TFC: Friends.

My mom always says you only need one friend. While I think Mom's got something there, I do have more than one friend. On the other hand, I've never been a posse kind of person. Maybe that's why my characters aren't either. In ANGEL'S CHOICE, Angel's got Karin and later Danny; in SECRETS OF MY SUBURBAN LIFE, Ren does have a posse, sort of, but they're all cabdrivers, and she does eventually become friends with two girls who are themselves best friends, T'Keyah and Kiki; and in ME, IN BETWEEN, Lacey's got Margot and later Sam. But with the exception of Ren's developing friendship with T'Keyah and Kiki, none of my heroines seem capable of doing anything with two friends at once.

What have I done to my poor heroines? Have I inflicted lonerism on them?

I'm an odd duck. If put into a situation with a large group of people like last night, I'm happy enough to work the crowd. I do fine at big parties, never hug the walls. But for some reason, whenever I think of putting something together, it's a one-on-one for dinner or a movie etc. I guess that's my natural preference: one on one.

And I guess I think I'm a really odd duck because, for the most part, I don't do a whole lot of reaching out to other people. Whether it's good news or bad news, I tend to keep it all to myself unless someone asks. But I hardly ever initiate. I don't call. I don't email. On the other hand, if you call or email, I will always reply - unless you are a stalker - and in a timely fashion. And yet I like my friends, love my friends, would die for my friends.

Still, maybe having a solitary nature isn't such a bad thing in a writer. And maybe it's not so bad in a fictional character either. After all, the duos I opened this blog with are all from TV and film. But how often do you get the equivalent of the buddy flick in literature? In literature, it's more usual than not for there to be one protagonist, one person who needs to complete the journey, learning whatever needs to be learned along the way. Maybe that's why solitary has mostly worked for me: I'm the protagonist of my own life story, hopefully even learning something every now and then.

So how about you? Could they make a buddy flick of your life? Are you one of a dynamic duo or a posse person? Do you prefer to go it alone?

Be well. Don't forget to write.

Tweet