Reality Bending
Okay, I admit it. My characters are real. No really. They have to be real or they wouldn’t take over the story the way they do. I can be typing along with a destination for my character in mind. The next thing I know she’s off doing something I had NO IDEA would happen. Before I was a writer, I heard authors say crazy stuff like that and thought it was a publicity ploy. Um, no. It’s real. Characters have minds of their own, and I often can’t fathom them.
The very best characters live on it in the minds of readers. My readers’ favorite character is Bree from the Rock Harbor series. She eats pistachios and has a search-and-rescue dog. She is crazy about Elvis music. She lives in a restored lighthouse on Superior’s south shore. I had so many requests for more books about her that I recently had to write another one that will be out in February called Cry in the Night. I’d intended to write a normal murder mystery and embroil her in it. She and I had no idea where the story would head once I got started. Bree is in big personal trouble. Very big personal trouble that threatens her son and her marriage. Poor girl.
See, she is a real person that I feel sorry for. That didn’t keep me from putting her in terrible difficulties, but I did feel a twinge of regret. And really, part of the trouble is her own fault. She veered off into new directions and I had no choice but to follow. She can’t blame me for the mess she’s made of everything. I told her I was washing my hands of it all.
Now you see why authors are thought to be a little demented. We talk to people in our heads. Mostly because we’re alone all day with a computer and it’s talk to our characters or to ourselves. I recently went on a big author bus tour. It was a luxury bus with 26 other authors, most of them romance writers, put on by Levy and Meijer Supercenters. Great fun! I had almost forgotten how to talk to real people, but it’s like riding a bicycle and it soon came back to me. The good news is that we were all a little twisted and could talk about our characters like they really exist.
And the weird thing is, we all KNOW they do.
Okay, I admit it. My characters are real. No really. They have to be real or they wouldn’t take over the story the way they do. I can be typing along with a destination for my character in mind. The next thing I know she’s off doing something I had NO IDEA would happen. Before I was a writer, I heard authors say crazy stuff like that and thought it was a publicity ploy. Um, no. It’s real. Characters have minds of their own, and I often can’t fathom them.
The very best characters live on it in the minds of readers. My readers’ favorite character is Bree from the Rock Harbor series. She eats pistachios and has a search-and-rescue dog. She is crazy about Elvis music. She lives in a restored lighthouse on Superior’s south shore. I had so many requests for more books about her that I recently had to write another one that will be out in February called Cry in the Night. I’d intended to write a normal murder mystery and embroil her in it. She and I had no idea where the story would head once I got started. Bree is in big personal trouble. Very big personal trouble that threatens her son and her marriage. Poor girl.
See, she is a real person that I feel sorry for. That didn’t keep me from putting her in terrible difficulties, but I did feel a twinge of regret. And really, part of the trouble is her own fault. She veered off into new directions and I had no choice but to follow. She can’t blame me for the mess she’s made of everything. I told her I was washing my hands of it all.
Now you see why authors are thought to be a little demented. We talk to people in our heads. Mostly because we’re alone all day with a computer and it’s talk to our characters or to ourselves. I recently went on a big author bus tour. It was a luxury bus with 26 other authors, most of them romance writers, put on by Levy and Meijer Supercenters. Great fun! I had almost forgotten how to talk to real people, but it’s like riding a bicycle and it soon came back to me. The good news is that we were all a little twisted and could talk about our characters like they really exist.
And the weird thing is, we all KNOW they do.
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