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Monday, February 21, 2011

tell me how you feel

that's what I asked my characters yesterday. Especially Louis. Arlen is easier because a lot of her is me back when I was a senior in high school. But Louis is harder. Even though I've written a character sketch and given him his own bio and asked him all those questions, still, sometimes he doesn't come across as truly here, or there. So yesterday I went back to when he was being followed in chapter three and I asked him straight out, "How are you feeling right now, Louis? Are you worried? Or have you become accustomed to being followed?" Then when he automatically reached for his magick when confronted and found it gone, I asked him again to tell me what was going through his mind. And finally when he sees himself in the mirror and knows that something awful has happened, but not what it is, I asked him what he's thinking.


I didn’t get a lot of answers. I think Louis is very untrusting at this point. But I did get a few things back, like how he felt naked without his magick to rely on. I should try to get it back to him soon, huh?

Anyway. It’s helping. This talking to my characters. Asking them what it looks like, feels like, tastes like, in their own words, not mine. So in chapter six, when Louis is looking at Arlen, it’s from his perspective, not mine.

     “He looked at her, noting the headset resting around her neck, and he supposed that was why she hadn’t heard him at first. She’d been jacked in. Was that her thing? She looked the type, with her slightly skewed sense of fashion and her boy cut. Not that anyone would mistake her for a boy. And the tattoo… It was hard not to look at it, the way it wound around her neck and shoulder, twisting around her bare arm in just the same way he remembered it twisting around him. He could almost feel it.”




meanwhile, windy and cold here, 27 days 'til spring, and yes, I am counting.

5 comments:

  1. You make me laugh, Marcy. But I love it. Keep talking to them. It seems to be working. You might just want to make sure no one else is around. The other day I was at the Y and I didn't realize someone else was around the corner and I had this complete conversation with myself. So this lady walks around the corner and sees me and I can tell she's looking for someone only no one's there. I just sort of smiled and walked in the other direction. I so hate when I'm caught! lol, b

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  2. I'm definitely for talking to your characters; they may only exist on paper but in our minds they are people. LOL. Sounds crazy, I know.

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  3. Oh, this sounds like a great process! I think I've often stuck to females and kids because their emotions are so accessible compared to (especially young) men. I think they spend a lot of time squashing their feelings, so they come out as something different than the real feelings. Love this as a process, though!

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  4. I love the way you talked about the tattoo! I don't talk to mine....I daydream...listen to music, and they show me. It's so cool how we all have a process and I love finding out about everyone else's :)

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  5. I have to say it's really helping me with Louis, my other mc. All I have to do is ask now, quietly...'Louis, tell me what your feeling, thinking'... I think it's working (strange as that may seem)...but we'll see what my very best crit partner has to say...

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