 |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
||
 |
 |
|
||
|
||||
 |
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
Channeling DogFebruary 24, 2006 I've been channeling Rhodry a lot lately: Rhodry not only blogs occasionally, he has a flourishing e-mail correspondence going with several dogs and one cat. Uh-oh. Should have started with a spoiler alert. No, Rhodry doesn't do his own typing. He doesn't even do his own dictating. And in the interests of full disclosure (you all do know enough not to believe anything that's prefaced with "in the interests of full disclosure" or "to be perfectly frank" or "honestly"?), I should add that I don't really channel Rhodry either -- no need to call the guys with the wrap-around jackets. On the other hand, I'm a fiction writer. Fiction writers are weird. Fiction writers sometimes talk like their characters are real. Fiction writing is one small step away from a serious personality disorder. Maybe it is a serious personality disorder. Long live fiction writing! I'm also a nonfiction writer, which may account for why I like to figure things out and explain them. So Rhodry is a real dog and Rhodry is also a fictional character. They have the same name, but they aren't the same. Needless to say, they aren't unrelated either. Fiction-Rhodry's voice is based on my long-time relationship with dog-Rhodry. After years of practice I can now tell almost immediately when fiction-Rhodry's words are a Susanna bleed-through. Fiction-Rhodry rarely explains; he doesn't talk in the conditional and he never makes excuses. This ability to spot author bleed-throughs is essential for fiction writers. When the author's hand gets too heavy, the character shuts up, stops walking around, maybe even dies. Authorial heavyhandedness is usually due to impatience or inattentiveness or lack of courage. You get sick of waiting for the character to make up her mind, or you don't realize that the character has made up her mind, or you just can't accept what the character says. In the early drafts of The Mud of the Place I seriously underestimated Rainey Sylvia. I thought she was clueless and gutless. When I finally heard what she was saying, I had to overhaul everything I'd written so far. In the process I graduated from apprentice novelist to journeywoman. Rainey isn't a "real" person; she isn't based on any person living or dead. She came out of my mind, but she told me things I didn't know. Can I explain what was going on? Not on your life. Maybe it was my subconscious, maybe it was electrical impulses in my brain, maybe I was channeling someone I haven't met yet. Know what? I don't care. The explanations are all metaphors of one kind or another, and though they're fun to discuss, they don't help me write better. What helps is clearing the space, listening carefully, and having the courage to write down what I hear. And to accept that while the characters aren't me as I understand me, they came to life through my fingers and my voice. Now let's talk about God . . .
|
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
 |
|
|||
 |
|
|||
Home - Writing - Editing - About Susanna - Bloggery - Articles - Poems - Contact Copyright ©
Susanna J. Sturgis. All rights reserved. |
||||