File It Under, “My Characters Amuse Me”

“Reverse psychology,” Jack said.

“Re-hoosit-whatsit? I just thought it was scamming.” Mikey slapped Jack’s shoulder and leaned against the railing.

“Yeah, well, they’re pretty much the same thing. People just use the big words to make it sound less shady.”

Writers love to talk about craft. The hard stuff. The stuff that makes us feel all accomplished and whatnot. But the reason we keep trucking through all the dejection, rejection, and unavoidable lows of a very tough profession is because the high points are just fucking fun.

My characters sometimes pull out my heart and stomp it into a million little pieces leaving nothing but hollow space and an inability to breathe. But more often than not they make me laugh out loud. The biggest hope is that whatever I’m feeling translates on the page and someone else will get to feel it, too. Those few lines at the top of the post cracked me up... weird, right? There are people in my head, telling jokes that give me a physical reaction. In normal people circles, that’s called crazy. But we get to balance on the tight rope of split personality and delusional tendency and other people marvel at our creativity. I don’t think you can really ask for better than that. Okay, you can ask for millions of dollars and a harem of smoking hot pool boys, but God tends to frown on delivering those kinds of things...

And we can get into craft... Do those words move the story? Is there a point to that little exchange or am I just amusing myself with my own wit, or lack thereof? Some of my silliness will, rightfully so, get cut in revision... in fact, a lot of my silliness will get cut in revision... along with, hopefully, all of my purple prose. But right now I’m just taking the journey. I can think about the destination. Dream about it so much I can taste it. Envision it in my head until it feels like a well-worn reality... and still, the road beckons more than the destination today... and I hope every day to come.

How’s your writing going? Care to share a scene from your wip that spoke to you, tickled you, or you hope moves someone else? Care to share one that’s hitting the cutting room floor? And what’s your priority today – the road or the destination?

And guys, if you haven’t yet heard and congratulated her, head over to Ello’s and share her much deserved high point with her.