{"id":5490,"date":"2016-09-25T04:00:24","date_gmt":"2016-09-25T11:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/?p=5490"},"modified":"2016-09-22T17:59:50","modified_gmt":"2016-09-23T00:59:50","slug":"secrets-and-revelations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/writing\/secrets-and-revelations\/","title":{"rendered":"Secrets and Revelations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lake<\/a><\/p>\n

The allure of secrets.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Keep something secret, and suddenly everyone wants to know what it is. I\u2019m thinking now of John Wayne, an actor who became famous for his portrayal of the strong, silent type of cowboy.<\/p>\n

Watching his movies, I always assumed that beneath his reticent surface there were secrets we would never know. And that seemed like a good thing. The cowboy had hidden depths.<\/p>\n

\"Lake<\/a><\/p>\n

This August, we visited Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada, and if ever a beautiful spot benefited from the allure of its hidden depths, it was Lake Louise. Canoeing on it, my daughter and I couldn\u2019t see a thing below the surface. The very phenomenon that makes it beautiful keeps its secrets hidden.<\/p>\n

The lake\u2019s water is one giant suspension of rock flour. The glacier melt that feeds it is filled with silt-sized bits of rock made so small by the grinding of glaciers on bedrock that they form a suspension in the cold lake water. That suspension of glacial flour absorbs all the colors of the spectrum except blue and green. Hence the lake\u2019s beautiful color.<\/p>\n

\"Fairmont<\/a>

Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Though some of us were content to paddle on the surface of the lake, my friend, Perry, told me he caught a big trout deeper down.<\/p>\n

When the water pulls back.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Following my theme of \u201cSecrets and Revelations,\u201d I\u2019ll jump ahead from our trip to Banff and Lake Louise to the photos I took a couple days later near my home. We\u2019d walked on the ferry to Kingston with the intention of skipping one ferry so my grandson could play on the beach before we sailed back for a big breakfast at Claires.<\/p>\n

\"Kingston,<\/a><\/p>\n

So while my grandson and son-in-law built an elaborate sand castle, my daughter and I walked down the beach to see what we could see.<\/p>\n

\"low<\/a><\/p>\n

The little beach by the ferry isn\u2019t a clam digging beach or a white sand beach. But at low tide, every beach has something to reveal.<\/p>\n

\"low<\/a><\/p>\n

A stranded jellyfish …<\/p>\n

\"low<\/a>\"low<\/a><\/p>\n

bits of seaweed …<\/p>\n

\"low<\/a><\/p>\n

shells picked clean. Nothing special. But they looked pretty to me. Maybe it was the light \u2026 or maybe the fact that they\u2019d been hidden until the tide went out.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m writing a novel now, so questions of secrets and revelation come up all the time. A character with secrets is more interesting. But what kinds of secrets? How much should I reveal and when?<\/p>\n

My writer friends may be interested in this article by Heather Jackson: The Key to Writing 3-Dimensional Characters.<\/a> The key to 3-dimensional characters, she says, is secrets.<\/p>\n

Low tide probably isn\u2019t the best metaphor for revealing secrets in novels. The tide goes out, and everything is revealed all at once. Heather Jackson uses the metaphor of an onion instead. You peel back the layers one at a time.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like life. We say we want people to be open and transparent. And yes, in some circumstances we do. Most of the time, though, we enjoy getting to know people bit by bit. Layer by layer. We drop in a line and hope to catch a fish. We wait for the tide to go out and see what there is to see.<\/p>\n

The interplay of secrets and revelations.<\/p>\n

\"my<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The allure of secrets. Keep something secret, and suddenly everyone wants to know what it is. I\u2019m thinking now of John Wayne, an actor who became famous for his portrayal of the strong, silent type of cowboy. Watching his movies, I always assumed that beneath his reticent surface there were secrets we would never know. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[155,318,253,4],"tags":[1359,1363,1361,1364,1358,1368,1360,1365,1366,1367,1362],"class_list":["post-5490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-photography","category-travel","category-writing","tag-canoeing","tag-fairmont-chateau-lake-louise","tag-glacier-fed-lake","tag-kingston-wa","tag-lake-louise-in-alberta-canada","tag-low-tide","tag-rock-flour","tag-sandcastles","tag-seaweed","tag-secrets-and-revelation-in-writing","tag-suspension-of-glacial-flour"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Kn1e-1qy","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5264,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/writing\/wild-duck-lake-and-the-writers\/","url_meta":{"origin":5490,"position":0},"title":"Wild Duck Lake and the Writers","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"June 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Vacationing with writers comes with its own peculiar kind of fun. 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In view of all this, I decided it was a good time to republish this post from 2014. ***********************\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "family"","block_context":{"text":"family","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"view from Tagaytay Ridge, photo courtesy of Glenn Martinez","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/taal-volcano-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10066,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/vanuatu\/vanuatu-vanuatu\/new-places-near-and-far\/","url_meta":{"origin":5490,"position":4},"title":"New Places Near and Far","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"November 27, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Lake Quinault Lodge Over the years, I\u2019ve enjoyed traveling to faraway places, seeing and experiencing, cities, towns, and sights that were new to me, talking to new people, making new friends. 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