This whole 'writer' thing is new to me. I haven't been doing it very long, so when dots connect in the story that I'm working on right now, it shocks me and sometimes makes me laugh out loud.
I had one of those 'driving epiphanies' I call them because they seem to always happen when I'm driving down the road. Out of nowhere, dots that weren't in my vision before connect, questions that I had before are answered and everything makes a little more sense than it did before. The whole creative process always surprises me, because I hardly ever have one of these epiphanies while I'm actually writing.
It usually happens when I'm either driving down the road or in the shower. When it's just me and my mind is clear enough to see what's going on in the story. I wish I could get all these epiphanies at one time so the whole story makes sense, but all I can hear is Diana Gabaldon's voice saying, "Where's the fun in that?"
When she began writing "Outlander", she told us how she had this character that was an American woman making all these wise cracks who suddenly appeared in the woods of a 16th century Scotland. She didn't know how the character got there or who she was. All she knew is the character, who turns out to be Claire, one of her main characters, wouldn't shut up. Diana decided to stop trying to figure out what she was doing there and just write what Claire was saying. Eventually, she figured it out. So after hearing her tell that very humorous story, I decided that I'd do the same thing. I'd let the characters tell me what was going on and I'd just write down what I heard instead of me trying to tell them. It works much better for everybody if I write that way.
Turns out, some of my best writing is done while I'm driving. :)
I had a huge revelation today as I was driving down the road. A connection so out-of-the-blue, it made me laugh out loud on the interstate as I drove.
Ever since I first started writing this story, I've had these two characters that have been bugging me. They're both moms of two main characters. So far, with all the other characters, I never have any trouble summoning a picture of what that character looks like. These two moms were the exception. When I would think of one or the other, the same description kept popping in my head with hardly any distinction in the two. It was hard for me to distinguish what each of them looked like separately. They both possessed similiar physical qualities, so that would confuse me. For some reason, these two moms were always interchangeable in my brain as far as what they looked like.
Today, I figured out why....wow....I wish I could tell you all of it.
Maybe one day when this book gets published you'll be able to figure it out. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment