Descriptions of the Heart - The Writing of Simon
When we seek information about others many of the questions revolve around appearance: What does She look like? What color is her hair? What kind of clothing does he wear? Is he tall or short? Are they slender, muscular, or chubby? Are they attractive? Often, answers to those questions fill in the information for unspoken questions that are based on our own experiences, histories, and prejudices: What does his grooming tell us about his social status? Can she be trusted? Would this person fall into my circle of friends? Should this person be an outcast? Before we even know it, we have placed people in the boxes we believe they pertain to before we even get to know them. They often arrive in our boxes based on the outward appearance or perceptions we have of them.
The nice thing about writing is we can create people, their personalities, looks, grooming, social status, and so much more. The page is blank before the keyboard starts moving. The descriptions can easily be altered and adjusted to get the description just right and to make more dynamic characters. That’s the cool thing that comes with authoring, you get to create, adapt, and improve interactions, characters, scenes, landscapes, cities, weather, and as much as your imagination is capable of creating.
With my novel Simon - which is about Simon of Cyrene the man who was compelled to carry the cross of Jesus as the procession was headed to Golgotha - I wanted to take a different approach with how characters were described.
A Different Approach with Simon of Cyrene
After my first draft of the story of Simon of Cyrene, I realized that I had left out a lot of details and descriptions not only of the scenes but also of the characters. Rereading the draft I noticed I had only described one character in any level of depth. My first thought was, “I can’t have that, after all, stories definitively describe the characters.” That is one reason why most people seem to bemoan how Hollywood portrays their favorite characters in film, because the physical appearance, mannerisms, and persona depicted in the film is different than what readers fell in love with in the book.
Wanting to confirm to the conventional style, I began including clear descriptions of each character to help readers visualize them as they read “Simon”. I started with the main character Simon. Over and over I sought to give a distinct face, stature, and appearance to him, but my attempts seemed futile. I was never able to come up with a description that seem appropriate or accurate. I thought, “Maybe I need to work on a different character first.” So off I went to describe Titus. The same thing happened. “Hmmm, that’s odd, I can visualize him in my head, but the words will not come out on paper.” I switched and tried to describe Julia. Same outcome. Alexander. No go. Rufus. Nope. “We’ll let’s go back to Simon.” Again I tried to describe him as I saw him in my head. The attempt was to no avail.
Confused, I figured I had writers block or was really bad with words. It struck me that maybe my inability to describe the physical appearance of someone was similar my failure in High School art to draw hands and feet. Never had my artistic attempts to duplicate hand or foot on page ever result in anything of beautiful significance. So frustrated had I been with those extreme appendages, that I crated my own artistic style I dubbed “amputationnalism”, where I left rounded ends of both arms and legs. (Side note: respect to any who have lost or never had any physical parts) Perhaps character descriptions were my equivalent to figure drawing.
One evening, as I sat musing over how to describe the characters of the story, an insight popped out at me from the prologue I had already written. Within that short section of the story was a very clear description, however it was not the type of characteral description that I had been seeking to create. It was a description of the heart and mind of Simon. Intrigued I again reread the whole draft and realized I had been true to that angle of description throughout the story. At that moment the following scripture went through my mind, “Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature;…for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” - 1 Samuel 16:7
Written from the Heart
I got the message and went forward with it. As you read “Simon” you will come across brief descriptions of appearance. The image your imagination creates about each character and what they look like will differ from my own and that of every other reader. The area where clarity is given is upon the matters of the heart: emotions, feelings, desires, thoughts, consciousness, and subconscious decisions.
Part of my purpose and hope, by excluding physical descriptions, is that you are able to place the people you know into the sandals of the characters of the story. This can help you cross the void of time and space and imagine how the events described in the novel would impact you. The characters in the story are simply place markers to help you enter their world and help your mind open up to the possibility of experiencing what they experienced.
“Simon” is not meant to help visualize the people we know were at the crucifixion. It is to help us see the greater purpose of Christ’s atonement and what that means to a spectrum of hearts. It is a story that shows how hearts can be prepared for a calling that will one day come. That hearts can be healed, mended, improved, and given hope. It is a story to show that despite how well me know others and how well they know us, we are unable to fully grasp what is in their heart. Nevertheless, there is one who knows our hearts even better than we do.
I hope you get the chance to read “Simon”. I would love to read your thoughts about the connections you find in the story in the comments below.