Such a true statement. Have you ever gone off about your story and at some point realized you sound like you’re talking about real people and real events? I’ve actually had non-writer friends stare at me in amazement and point out that even I sound like I believe they’re real.
In a sense, I do.
And that’s impossible to explain to them. They’ll never get it. Never.
We spend an extraordinary amount of time getting to know these people who come to us. We dig deep into their emotions, learn their childhood events and experience the current struggles with them. To me, this is a normal thing.
To the non-writers around me, I’m a strange, strange bird. (Yeah, I’ve given up on trying to fit in with the non-writer/publishing crowds.)
But very recently, I went off about my book–the one that’s making the rounds with publishers, not my current WIP. I mean really went off. I was talking about some of the funny parts and heart breaking parts and one of my friends broke in and pointed out that it sounded like I missed the characters. Like I was grieving for them.
She said that was weird.
Yeah, maybe. But I’m pretty comfortable with weird these days. 😉
Later that night, I kept replaying her words in my head and realized she’s right. I am grieving and a lot of the heavy disappointment I’m feeling these days is coming from the longtime wish, or hope, that someone else will love this world I made. That they, like me, will see that there is sooo much more to stories of Beri, Blythe, Nikolos and the others.
In order for these books to feel real for us, we have to invest a lot of time and attention to the characters. Then we send them out and hope someone else feels the same way.
I did get that last year when my agent called to say she wanted to work with me. I had two great agents interested at that time and I ended up picking Miriam because of her response when I asked her if she loved the book. She let me know in no uncertain terms. Damn, that was cool. <g>
I recently shared an excerpt at the Dames site and the enthusiastic response from readers felt pretty good, too. I’m aware there will be plenty who don’t fall for my world, that my every writing flaw will be on display for the masses, but you know what? There will be others who dig it and I’m looking forward to hearing from them. 🙂