I once had a French teacher who told me that once you start dreaming in French, you'll know that you are mastering the language. I never dreamed in French (unless you count the occasional dream starring Gerard Depardieu) or any language other than English but I do dream my writing.
Last night I had dreams about Vegas Shmegas, which begins principal photography November first so there is still a lot of pre-production stuff to be accomplished. I also dreamed about my novel, which is as yet untitled so I'm calling it "Shelby 1" (and hoping that someday there is a "Shelby 2"). Obviously both projects are heavily in my mind, which is a nice distraction from all the other stuff going on.
The writing on this is going well, much better than I had expected. It's written in first person (like the Stephanie Plum novels) and I've heard that's typical in 'chick lit' - so you were right Dyann! (Hmmm, do they call novels written about and by guys "dick lit"?) The thing is, because it's written from Shelby's perspective, I'm hearing her voice in my head constantly.
For my fellow writers, a question please. Do your characters speak to you? I mean literally. Mine do. Oh, I know, it's just my brain, working out the logistics and story, but my characters actually say and do things I didn't expect. Shelby speaks Chinese, did you know that? I didn't, at least not until she told me. She speaks several languages actually and it's in a unique way that she learned each of them. Of course, this may present a problem as I don't speak a foreign language so there's more research I need to do. Thanks a lot, Shel.
There is a character in "Arnie Johnson's Big Break" who has a twist at the end that I didn't see coming. Shocked me. But it was perfect and got me out of a writing corner, so to speak. I had been fussing and worrying about how to resolve the situation when the character stepped forward and revealed the situation. It was a relief and a surprise.
So the writing goes on. If you see me mumbling to myself while I walk through the grocery store, I'm not crazy, just talking to Shelby. Oh, and ladies, Evan is way hotter than I ever imagined. Whew. You're gonna love their love story! I'm blushing just thinking about it. Shelby isn't some stick thin supermodel (few couch potatoes are) and Evan likes curvy girls. (Of course, it doesn't hurt that Shelby's curves are in the right places whereas mine seem to be more like an abstract painting.) Evan is the perfect guy, so of course he's fiction. I'M KIDDING, I know there are great guys out there, it's just that they're already taken. But if you know one that isn't, send him my way. I could use the 'practice' for my love scenes!
3 comments:
I can't say I haven't actually had my characters "speak" to me. But maybe that's because I am writing in the third person. But sometimes I do notice that when I am writing dialogue it just flows really, really well, like I'm right there in the scene observing the conversation. And as for unexpected twists, I did have a character do something that I was originally going to have another character do. But as the conversation flowed and she said she did it, it just made total sense.
I would love to try doing a story in the first person. I think it would sort of be like acting - you get to be someone else while you are writing. Do you find it to be that way?
So keep up the good work, Shae! You (and Shelby!) are totally putting me to shame. I have been so neglecting my re-writes this week. But I think I have caught up with everything else so no more excuses!
You know, my characters do speak to me, but not my heroines. I think my heroines are just different off-shoots of myself, so I already know who they are and what they want.
But my heroes talk to me frequently. Recently, I had something similar to what happened to Maura.
I was writing a scene between my heroine and the Detective investigating the case, and the Detective started saying some really deep and meaningful things, that made him crazy sexy hot in my eyes. OK, so I already planned to have the Detective as the hero in the third book of this trilogy, BUT I didn't expect him to come alive so soon AND I'm thinking I should really tone him down a bit so he doesn't take over this story. Still, he just started speaking and he wasn't going to shut-up until I wrote down what he was thinking.
You guys know most Gothics are done in first person, too. But that's because if we got into the heads of too many of the other people, the whole mysteriousness that surrounds this genre might fall flat. Who knows.
But I'm super excited to read about Shelby and Evan, Shae. They sound like they will be a pair to be reckoned with :-)
P.S. And I love that Shelby happened to mention she speaks Chinese and other foreign languages. That's so quirky!
I can help you practice your "Love Scenes" if you would like haha. It would be my pleasure!!!! Good luck on the writing. Keep up the good work.-JON
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