April A to Z Blog Challenge Theme Reveal

Are you a writer looking for some interesting personality traits and quirks to freshen up your characters? Or maybe you’re a logophile, someone who loves words, and wants to collect more of them. Either way, you’ve come to the right place.

Welcome to Personality Quirks A to Z. “Romance Righter” is a blog addressing relationship issues, including romance, especially in terms of and with applications for writing novels. Therefore it is the perfect site to talk about personality quirks.

Most days this month (my masters give four Sundays off; I’ll post on Sunday the 30th) you will find a new-to-you—I hope—word that describes a personality quirk or trait, even some personality disorders, that I will define and then give examples for how to create a character displaying those traits.

To avoid the awkwardness surrounding manipulating pronouns, I am using gender neutral pronouns I wrote an article about in Elementary English (a publication of National Council of Teachers of English) decades ago. Heesh for he or she; shis for his or her; shim for him or her, and shimself for himself or herself.

The letters highlight a problem I have always had with this challenge. There are more words to choose from than I can reasonably do! This year I intend to stick with just one word and resist the part of me that wants to give you more as I have in past years. So I will fight decidophobia, the fear of making decisions, that plagues Librans like me. One word a day. I promise (myself)!

Plan to come back often, and let me know in the comments below how I can find your site and read your musings this month. 

Here’s where to find out more about the April A to Z BlogChallenge.

Friendship, Friend, Friending

I am participating in a small and relatively new activity within the Unitarian Universalist Association of churches. #UULent (on Facebook) is trying to bring together far-flung UUs to have a shared experience. 

As the site says: 
Yesterday was the first day of #UULent! Consider joining UUs from all around the world in a spiritual discipline of deep intention and appreciation of our world, our place in it, and an openness to Grace in our daily lives.

#UULent is designed to be used individually, as a family, or as a congregation. For each day in Lent a word has been selected. Each day participants are invited to reflect on the meaning of the day’s word, then create a photograph that represents the word, idea, practice, or concept and post it here and/or elsewhere.

Beginning on Ash Wednesday and for each day until Easter, the word for the day and a related quote will be posted. Reflect and engage throughout the day, checking for the word and quote in the morning, then come back later in the day to add your photo* and to see the images and words others have shared throughout the day (*YOUR photo - please respect copyright!).

May this intentional practice and discipline impact your daily life in ways that bring you closer to your spiritual core and offer you resiliency for life.


Now, I'm not a photo kind of gal. You might have seen my food pix each February over at "Parsley, Sage, and RosemaryTime" so I am doing my reflections with words. Each day I post at least one quote and then I ruminate on it and ask others to do the same.

One important part of #UULent, in my opinion, is through reflecting, either visually or with words, on a word each day. You are engaging in a form of meditation. Meditation has been shown to have mental and physical health benefits. Even those not given to traditional forms of meditation or prayer can find the same benefits by setting aside a few minutes each day for targeted reflection on these words.

On March 13^th the word of the day was “friendship”.

The quote posted by the group on the #UULent site was:

Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends. - Virginia Woolf 

Think on that. What does Woolf think that friends offer that neither priest nor poetry do? It’s not just that there’s a person. A priest is a person. In fact, a person you are expected to open up to, to tell all to. So what does a friend offer that a priest does not? Or is it that the priest is in a seat of judgment whereas a friend is not. I think Woolf’s quote could make for some interesting discussions over an adult beverage.

The quotes I posted were:

There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven't yet met.  William Butler Yeats

Friends are the siblings God never gave us.  Mencius

Today's post at #UULent. The word for today is "friendship". To honor the word, make a new friend, heal a broken friendship, tell someone why he/she is a friend. Consider for yourself what it takes to be a friend and how you are a friend to others. What is the most important trait in friendship?

“Friend” is used so loosely. I have lots of “friends” on Facebook, people I’ve never met, yet some of whom I have grown to know their hearts because of our interactions. But is “friending”, friendship? What makes an acquaintance into a friend? Or not?

Maybe you'd like to join me in this venture, whether you are a UU or not. Here's the list. Hop aboard.

April A to Z Blog Challenge

Hey, hey. Sorry it's been so long, but you're going to get tired of me next month. The April A to Z blog challenge, well, my part of it, is happening right here!

How does it work? For 26 days in April (we get Sundays off), a different post goes up. Day one, the letter A; day two, the letter B, and so on.

Come back on March 20th for the theme reveal! Hint: This blog deals with relationships and personalities, so all you writers come back and see what's here that might help you enrich your characters and tales.

See you next week for a regular post, and then again on the 20th for the theme reveal.