So I've spent the last few years working on a novel. Don't know if I'll ever sell it, but I think about the main character, Emi, a lot. You spend that much time with a person--even a not real person--and it's hard not to wonder what she's up to when she's out of eyeshot.
I often feel this way about my characters. After I finished writing The Shadow Brothers (a billion years ago) Ken Cannon and I spent some time on the Navajo reservation, and I said to him, "I wonder if Henry will be happy here." And Ken Cannon said, "Henry? As in the fictional boy in your fictional story fictionally called The Shadow Brothers?"
He was alarmed, don't you know.
And who can blame him?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I think good writing comes from treating the characters with the respect/disrespect the character needs within the confines of the story. Treating them as actual people probably helps that out. Whatever it is, it seems to have worked well.
It's kind of this way, for me, with Facebook friends. I don't really know most of those people, and we would probably not get along if we actually met, but I imagine lives for them all and worry about them when they are incommunicado for a while.
I actually met Henry when I was living down on the Rez. We went running a few times together.
Post a Comment