Here in central Ohio, we’re in the heart of winter. Snow on the ground. Cold temperatures. Fierce winds. Dark longer in the mornings. Gray days. Early nightfalls. It’s enough, at least for me, to invite despair. Especially at night, just before I close my eyes for sleep, I’m prone to wander into what I call the dark corners. I keep telling myself not to go there.

Despite this tendency to vanish into darkness, I’m aware that joy is all around me. The love of a good woman. Our entertaining and loving cats. Close friends. My students who inspire me. Good, long runs. Fabulous meals. Memories. The opportunity to do what I’ve always loved, to teach and write. Plus, sunset is coming a tad later each day. Soon, I tell my night class students, we’ll be leaving our workshop room in daylight, and the temperatures will be warm, and the birds will be singing, and flowers and trees will be in bloom.

As writers, we can sometimes be too unkind to our characters. We bring them nothing but misery and woe. We should also think about what brings them joy. Amy Bloom’s story, “Silver Water,” for instance, features a young woman who is schizophrenic, but she also has the most amazing  singing voice. The result is a character who lives on the thin line between torment and beauty, as do her family members as they try their best to help her have a happy life. Without the glorious singing voice, we would have a one-note story (pun intended), a story only about despair. Bloom also gives this character a wickedly funny direct way of speaking that makes her even more irresistible and memorable.

I encourage us all to give our troubled characters the grace of something that makes them beautiful. Let them hold onto the darkness and the light. Make them something other than victims. Make them human. Maybe they’re like me, trying their best to avoid the dark corners by embracing small moments of joy.