Angela BensonWhat’s a community organizer?
The answer, according to community organizers: HERE
Organizers again (two minutes, forty seconds):
These descriptions lead me to an idea for a new book. Not my next one since it’s due in a month but maybe the one after that.
We have a female community organizer of the Democratic persuasion and a male city official of the Republican persuasion, both Christians. I’ll give each one of them an Independent friend, not sure if the friends will be Christians. The goal of the story will be to put on display the tensions between faith and party allegiance, regardless of your party affiliation.
The challenge with this story would be to resist the urge to turn it into an issue book. Issue books are preachy and boring. In this book, I’d have to trust my characters and give them the freedom to develop naturally. Doing that means the book could take me somewhere I didn’t plan to go.
I wonder if such a book would be too heavy or too controversial for readers. I’d really focus on the romance angle and show the two folks coming together to address some community problem and in the process having to reconsider some of their political and religious positions.
This is how my ideas start. Who knows where this one is going to end. I’ll keep you posted.
Where would you take the idea or would you drop it? Do you know of other books that have tried to do this? Let me know your thoughts.
UPDATE: You know, I think the story will be more interesesting if the woman is the Republican city official and the man is the Democratic organizer. What do you think?
Sounds interesting, although I’d keep the original characters to avoid comparisons to the whole Obama-Palin thing, thereby freeing your readers on some level to appreciate the story for itself rather than bring their opinions and feelings regarding the actual campaigns to bear.
Good point, Patricia, believe it or not that didn’t occur to me. I was trying to go against type. Put the woman in the power position and the man in the nurturing position since that gives me some built in conflict. But I see your point.
What if I go further against type (or stereotype) and make the organizer a Republican and the city official a Democrat. I really want the woman to be the city official but that could still draw Obama-Palin comparions. So what if the woman is the organizer (back to the original idea) and the man is the city official (back to the original idea).
You realize, of coure, that I’m never going to use the words Democrat and Republican in the book, right? That might be too much for me even me to read. 🙂
Okay, now I’m thinking I want to add an inter-racial twist. Too much? Let’s make the woman the minority.
You can go either way, but I personally don’t care about the Obama Palin comparisions. By the time the novel comes out Obama will be president and the forgetful American public won’t even remember her. (Guess we all know who my candidate is).
I say write what you feel. I love a book that addresses real issues without making me feel I’ve crossed over into a literary piece of non-fiction. You can do it. You’re top gun.
Good point, Rhonda. Okay, now the man is divorced and has custody of his kids. The woman is single with no kids.