DAY OF THE DEAD and HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL

The last of that title is the wrong question actually.

The proper one is "How to Write A Novel People Are Drawn To?"


Do you know the history of the Day of the Dead? 

It is a strange (to us) holiday occurring during the first and second crisp days of November.  

It falls on All Saints and All Souls Days of the Catholic Church.

But indigenous people are craftily adaptable and 

happily absorbed those holidays instead of being absorbed by them as the church intended.

They believe that the Gates of Heaven are opened at midnight on October 31st, 

and the spirits of all deceased children (angelitos), are allowed to be reunited with their families for 24 brief hours. 

On November 2nd, the deceased adults are released, allowing them to visit their families.  


(There are some sons-in-law out there who are right now shivering, 

thinking of having to lock horns with their mothers-in-law once more after thinking themselves safe.)


For these self-supporting rural indigenous families, the festivities they make for those reunions are crushingly expensive.

Many spend TWO months income to honor their dead relatives.


Imagine if you would that those days are all too real?  

What if you were a woman who had killed her lover out of self-defense?


When he comes with a ghost of a smile
And he roams through her eyes for a while,
The Day turns as empty ground somewhere.

There’s a rise, there’s a fall
Where the light hits the wall
Spins a shadow ...

There’s a cold wind blowing down through the meadow
And he’s the dark where the day has been bleeding
The ink this page has been needing
You closed the lid but it still casts a shadow

There’s a rise, there’s a fall
Where the light hits the wall
Spins two shadows.


What if you were a poor single mother ... so poor that you could not afford the medicines to save your beloved daughter?

So poor you could not now afford the simplest decorations of the sugar-skulls your Maria loved so?

The night of her last day, you held her so close but the warmth was gone as were the stars.  

You sat rocking her for hours.  But your sun did not rise with the dawn.

Now, Maria would not come to this dark, bleak house because you were poor still.

You feel feather touches of light fingers on your wet cheek.  You hear the words you never expected to hear:  

"Mama, Mama, it's all right.  Love doesn't have to be bought." 


That is how you write a novel that people want to read:

You write of characters so real that the readers ache with them, 

fear for them, 

and cheer with them when life grants them some small blessing.


To draw them to your character's situation, 

you paint in word-colors of hope, love, doubt, and courage when all seems lost.

But like with the Day of the Dead, the situation must be original in some fashion --

not a field plowed over by a thousand hackneyed writers spinning the same tale yet again.

I hope this helps in some small way, Roland

Day of the Dead is an interesting holiday celebrated in central and southern Mexico during the chilly days of November 1 & 2. Even though this coincides with the Catholic holiday called All Soul's & All Saint’s Day, the indigenous people have combined this with their own ancient beliefs of honoring their deceased loved ones. - See more at: http://www.mexicansugarskull.com/support/dodhistory.html#sthash.VgMP2nOu.dpuf

Day of the Dead is an interesting holiday celebrated in central and southern Mexico during the chilly days of November 1 & 2. Even though this coincides with the Catholic holiday called All Soul's & All Saint’s Day, the indigenous people have combined this with their own ancient beliefs of honoring their deceased loved ones. - See more at: http://www.mexicansugarskull.com/support/dodhistory.html#sthash.VgMP2nOu.dpuf

Day of the Dead is an interesting holiday celebrated in central and southern Mexico during the chilly days of November 1 & 2. Even though this coincides with the Catholic holiday called All Soul's & All Saint’s Day, the indigenous people have combined this with their own ancient beliefs of honoring their deceased loved ones. - See more at: http://www.mexicansugarskull.com/support/dodhistory.html#sthash.VgMP2nOu.dpuf