How a banner in the sky is like excitement in your writing

It's funny (not funny haha; but funny, that's odd) how something you already knew about but never saw before IRL (in real life) can make you act like the biggest, most embarrassing tourist ever. When we were coming out of the parking lot, walking toward the Hollywood Walk of Fame last week (if you need to catch up, feel free to read my vacation post HERE), the OMG-get-a-picture-of-this-moment (not for us, but for some southern--obvious by the drawl--visitors) was seeing a humacious construction crane towering above a three-story building. We laughed, actually, because--I'm not kidding--one lady was jumping up and down, she was so excited about posing in front of that crane for a picture.

Our OMG-get-a-picture-of-this-moment happened the day we arrived in Long Beach. We'd unpacked, and decided to take a stroll to the beach; and as we stood on the sand, the neeeeeerrrrr (like my airplane sound?) of an airplane filled the air.  We looked up to see an airplane pulling a genuine advertisement banner behind it, and out. Came. The cameras.

I mean, it's an airplane!!!! Pulling a sign!!!! 

Me: They really do this!?!?! Not just in movies?!?!? HOLY CRAP guys, GRAB THE CAMERA!

Okay. I get that this doesn't seem like that big of a deal. But being as Lovemuffin is in construction, a *crane* wasn't that big of a deal, either, to us. Yet, those other tourists were grinning from ear to ear. See? It's different for everyone.

The feeling you get when you see something for the first time is so unique, isn't it? For one, it can never, ever be replicated again. For two, sometimes you look back and laugh at just how excited you got about it. 

This reaction is okay, however, because life without *squee* moments such as these would be very boring. We were created to have a full range of emotions, some of which are felt more often than others. And... my reason for sharing this? Well, the banner made me think about feelings and writing. Mainly, writing about first-time feelings. It's a hard thing to do--for me, at least--because descriptions of the visual variety aren't as difficult for me. But reactions? My stomach-did-this-and-I-felt-this-way as-he-opened-his-mouth-and-broke-my-heart descriptions? Totally different story. (Maybe that's why I like to talk my characters through what's going through their heads, instead of describing what's happening with their bodies. We all have aspects of things we aren't as strong at... and this is one area I'm wanting to expand.)

Anyway. Just wanted to share what one of the many things we experienced on our vacation taught me. It reminded me, as a writer, to stop and take notice of what I was feeling at certain moments. It also reminded me that sometimes you're so caught in the moment of things, you don't take account of the physical aspects of the situation. (This is important to remember.) That there's a fine line between describing a little, and telling so much that you actually pull the reader from the story. 

Last, it reminded me that overreacting about the little things is what makes us human, and those reactions are necessary to helping the reader identify with the characters. That's our job, as writers: to connect the letters and fonts on the page to the reader's heart and mind.