I love my characters more
Since I have decided I prefer having a regular working routine and respecting it more often, I have found that I love my characters more and respect them more carefully. Somehow, they are also happier being with me, and more expansive, which helps greatly when it comes to writing what they want to tell me: their motivations and ideas have become clearer and more determined, since I no longer cram them into the rest of my life like a guilty secret.
I once got a reply from an agent – I was grateful: he sent me back my letter of enquiry with some comments, and any feedback is valuable – saying that I had too many points of view. I beg to differ, since I don’t have a universal narrator who tells the story over the heads of the characters like some benign grandpa.
I prefer to allow all the characters to speak for themselves. Rather like a room full of people having a good old discussion, my characters all want to have their say, and I cannot simply separate them out into ‘one at a time, please!’ as if I were a school mistress and they were unruly pupils. That is not how I really write best.
My writing attempts to mirror life at some level of reality, which includes catering for several points of view, since that is how people in a group usually expect to be heard: Life is not a debating society with rigid rules of engagement, and I do hope that if my writing is clear enough, there is no need to worry that my readers will be confused.
Thanks for reading.
Please share:
August 21, 2018 @ 4:21 pm
Another great post. I remember a public broadcasting TV show that ran a mystery story in four parts. In each part, we were shown and we heard the point of view of each party to the mystery (4 people in all). Not only was the clue to the mystery contained within these various, but in addition, the experiences of each player was radically different though also related. Very life-like, I thought. A bit disconcerting to watch, but over-all most satisfactory.
By the way, I keep meaning to ask where you find all your wonderful paintings of women writers/readers! I love them. Especially the one in this post. 🙂
August 21, 2018 @ 5:22 pm
I very much like these pictures too, Elouise. I have my favourites, of course, and I’m glad to find some of them on wikipedia. I often go to Wikipedia Commons for images that are not in copyright, and I do seem to gravitate towards art anyway. I wrote a post called, “Women reading” about how women are portrayed reading in art, and since then, I’ve found it interesting. I’ll find some more pictures of men reading.
August 28, 2018 @ 10:43 pm
Thanks for this response to my question about women readers. I think the comparison between portrayals of men reading and women reading sounds most interesting.
August 29, 2018 @ 10:28 am
Hello Elouise,
Since I wrote this post here
https://www.franmacilvey.com/women-portrayed-reading/
I have perhaps modified my views somewhat, in that I don’t suppose the portrayal of women is always consciously done, or necessarily designed to support the patriarchy 😉 but, I find that in order to refine a view, we have to start with any view, which will often be a bit rough hewn. That is indeed how I refine what I prefer.
Thank you for being such a thoughtful commentator. ((xxx))