I Talk To My Characters
And they talk back. I find myself having conversations with them as I'm writing a book. Seems pretty normal to me, until my husband or daughter walk into the room and find me carrying on a one sided conversation while I'm typing.
Me: Hey. Why did you just do that?
Character: Because I wanted to.
Me: Nuh-uh. I need way more motivation than that.
Character: Too bad. I'm not telling you why.
Me: Why not?
Character: It's a secret
Me: But I'm the author! You have to tell me everything!
Character: No I don't *snickers*
Me: *glaring* You make my job very difficult
Character: You love me and you know it. I make you eager to run to your computer every day so you can see what's going to happen next.
Me: Yuh-huh. I'd be a lot happier if I knew in advance what happens next. *shakes plot outline in front of character's face*. See this? This is my story. I'm supposed to know what happens next!
Character: That's what you think...hehehe
Yeah, that pretty much sums up how it goes. I plot the story, the characters change it on me. I guess I really am just the typist around here. But don't tell my characters that. My life's already difficult enough without them knowing I give in to their demands.
;-)
Jaci
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9 comments:
I talk to my characters too! Here's a conversation I had with Mia Snow, heroine of Awaken Me Darkly:
Me: You can’t kill that alien yet.
Mia Snow: Try and stop me.
Me: His death needs to come later for the story to work.
Mia Snow: Uh, did you hear what he said to me? I’m killing him now!
Yes! *snort*
That's exactly what I'm talking about. I swear I need a whip and a chair to tame these characters sometimes. They never listen. They're like my kids *g*
Jaci
Hehehehhe...yes characters do tend to do things their own way sometimes :)
I might talk to my characters, if I could get a word in edgewise. It would be nice if they'd talk to me when I'm at the computer, but they have a bad habit of sitting on the edge of my bed in the middle of the night and waking me up, like a little kid going, "Mom, mom! I have something I need to tell you!"
The hero of my upcoming book is the nicest guy in the world on the page, but he's a real pain to me. He never lets me get any sleep when I'm working on a book in this series because he feels the need to tell me his entire life story and what he thinks about everything that's happening in the book I'm working on, even though it's being told in first person from someone else's point of view. I try to put my pillow over my head and groan, "Can't you tell me all this in the morning?" but he just ignores me and goes on.
I'm way worse, because I live alone and there's no one to interrupt me. It could go on for hours, and I tend then to do it in public, too. They make it very difficult to go to sleep sometimes :D
I talk to mine without even being in front of the computer screen. I drive my kids around a lot and will have full blown silent conversations with my characters while making all the facial expressions and moving my mouth. My kids thinks it's hysterical, though they have both asked that I not do that when their friends are in the car!
I think it is my way of working out stuff in my head when I am not actually writing.
Teri
Teri, isn't the car the BEST place to talk to your characters?! I get more "writing" done in the car than anywhere else. I've been known to go places, just to be alone in the car so I can talk out loud to my characters (or AS my characters). Pacing my house and talking aloud also works, although really makes the dog a bit crazy. :-)
Shannon
I'm quite used to my characters backtalking me at this point ... but let me tell you, when you have one threaten to kill you ... (Then you start wondering about your own mental health! LOL!)
What drives me nuts is when they suddenly reveal large chunks of their life that I never knew about. Oh, you have a sister? Gee, why didn't you tell me that THREE CHAPTERS AGO???????
Sigh. Characters have such a mind of their own.
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