WIP

I stood in the restroom here at my work, looking into the mirror while I put my mascara on and dusted my cheeks with makeup. I considered my age and smiled. This might come across as weird, but I don't mind being as old as I am.

Yes, I do have dark days still - and this is going to be embarrassing to admit. When I was a teenager, and even in my early 20's, I tended to look at 30 as the point in life when women became uninteresting. I mean, I would pick up a book, see the protagonist was in her thirties, and I would put it down and move along. Shame on me.

Guys are allowed to be interesting at 30, because that is the time when they have settled down and turned into the people that they are going to be. As far as I know, women go through that same stage when they are 20. <- Though, technically, I was 22 when that day happened.

Women - when they turn 30 or start getting up to that age - always seem to be fighting aging skin and hair, sagging figures, ticking body clocks, dancing babies... and they are also fighting to keep their men from losing interest and yenning after 20 y/o college girls. <- That is such a depressing prospect!

So sometimes, I'll sit cross-legged on my bed and DWELL on the fact I'm stuck on a one way street in a runaway Toyota whose brakes don't work at all.

But...

Looking at myself in the mirror I noticed that my face has more character than it had when I was a round-cheeked twenty-year old. I feel pretty and confident behind my face, and that was definitely not going on when I was getting into my 20's.

A couple days ago, I saw a story about the French President's wife, Carla Bruni. She was a model at one time - and had guys eating out of her hand. Now she's in her forties, she has had extensive work down on her face (from all appearances, anyway). She had botox to tighten up her forehead and collagen filler put in her cheeks and lips. She also had a lot of makeup on in a failed effort to hide the crinkly skin under her eyes.

Maybe I'll feel differently when I start getting up closer to my forties... but right now, I see the beginning changes in my face, and I like them. The only thing I'm frantic about preventing is the undereye problem. *grabs eyecream and smears on generously*

But seriously -

I agree that most women find themselves in their early twenties. But it is possible that there are some who don't actually feel like swans until much later.

While I'm dithering thusly, the point is that I can see myself down the road starting to write novels with thirty-something protagonists. IMO, it is just as important a find-yourself time as turning sixteen.

This topic emerged while I read the news this morning -

On abcnews.com, there is an article on the harmful effects which social habits have on aging.

This means that if you are a smoker, you are doubling your chances of vertical lines around your lips and wrinkles around your eyes. I'm guessing you have to be a longtime habitual smoker for this to happen, but definitely have noticed the 'smoker face' effect.

According to the article, smoking shrinks the blood vessels and dehydrates the skin - which is why you get those wrinkles and lines.

The other thing mentioned in the article was the effects of sun exposure on a person's face. This means that the person is more likely to have coarse dried out skin and deep lines around eyes and cheeks. Basically, this is the John Wayne effect. A lot of people I know from California either have the 'spots' or discolorations from sun exposure, or they have the squint lines around their eyes.

The article also mentioned stress and the obvious lines around the mouth and dark skin under the eyes... I tend to think stress has more effect on the eyes. The people look tired because of a sag or puff around their eyes because of lack of sleep or poor sleep patterns.

What does this have to do with writing?

I guess this is an extra bit of realism when you are building characters. People have certain 'looks' because of their genetic backgrounds. They also have certain looks because of how they live.

The abcnews.com story didn't exactly take into account the other reasons why a person would have crinkles around her eyes and mouth (squinting habit because of poor eyesight, for example), but it was still something you could well use when figuring out what your characters look like. It would add that extra bit of realism for your readers.

Friday catchup:

Lot of stress in real life as well as a lingering flu/cold/whatever have kinda killed writing-urges lately for the most part. :[

Baby sisters + obnoxious boyfriends = family hell

Did edit CH1 of UF and rewrite/nudge it quite a bit. It reads smoother. Hopefully real life stuff calms down and I can fix CH2 tomorrow.