“Q” is for quit

Ari has many reasons – and opportunities – to give up.

Her mother hates her, is verbally/emotionally/sometimes physically abusive. Early on in the story, she’s been torn from all she’s ever known. Returning home means death – but her sister needs help, so she tries her hardest to reach her. She ends up trapped in a horror she never imagined, the remainder of her innocence ripped from her at the hands of men and a vicious woman. Originally, she had no reason to fight for her survival (apart from the desire to simply stay alive).

But now, she has a reason (saving her sister).

So she fights.

And keeps fighting.

I don’t even know how many times she comes near the point of giving up, but she doesn’t quit. She learns. She adapts. Amid torture (physical and psychological) and forced prostitution, she hardens herself. She plots and manipulates and tries numerous times to escape her imprisonment, until at last she secures her freedom.

Every obstacle she encounters, she faces. She figures out a way where there seems to be no possible way, no matter the cost. And even when everything crashes down on her – which happens several times – she keeps trying. Sometimes she rises to the challenge. Sometimes the struggle gets the best of her. But she never quits. She won’t.

Rab does give up for a while. When everything is ripped from her, she falls and doesn’t rise immediately. She doesn’t face the challenges, doesn’t adapt. She implodes, then explodes. Seeing no purpose for her life, she doesn’t try to preserve it. Broken and furious, she becomes reckless – the recklessness of one who has nothing to lose.

But she, too, will come to the crossroads. A moment where she must decide whether to quit, or rise again.

There are many others too. Most of my characters have every reason to quit, to let their circumstances consume them. Some do. Some can’t handle the strain, the fear, the things required of them.

But the others are resilient. In the face of evil, they may tremble, but they stand. When presented with the chance to quit, though they may falter a bit, they ultimately press on. For their loved ones, for their people, for the greater good of the whole world.

I hope I can do it all justice.