It had been so long since she caught sight of herself in that mirror that she checked to see if it was still there. It was, and that loathsome figure stared back at her, with all the pity and hate she felt herself. The other woman, the daytime woman that he wanted.
So... Blog feedback and readership is doing well this month, probably on account of the fact I've worked on precious little else since January. To avoid tumbling into a post-a-day rant fest (this isn't a LiveJournal, after all), I've been doing some more creative writing to help tune myself up for Script Frenzy.
To really throw myself into the writing flow, I've been fictionalising real people. I'm not talking about the hackneyed and somewhat cliche practice of looking at people in public, and turning them into caricatures with backgrounds and stories based on their appearance, I'm talking about asking and answering questions about people that you already know, and turning what you find into prose.
Why did that girl at work suddenly start dressing formally after slumming it in jeans for so long?
Where does your regular waiter's limp actually come from?*
Is there some dark secret in family history that makes your Dad hate mustard so much?
*He has frogs legs.
When you base the start of your ideas in reality rather than plucking them from air, most of the characterisation is done for you, leaving you to play with the story and let your interpretations unfold. You may even find that the better you know someone, the more unanswered questions you have about them, and the more confidence you have in writing up the believable semi-fictional reasoning behind their quirks and secrets.
It'll probably stop you being so nosey about their real lives too..
I'm interested to know what other techniques people use for birthing new characters or stories, so go crazy in the comments below! You don't even have to sign up to post!
Nick
xx
Careful, ever see the movie "Deconstructing Harry" written by none other than Woody Allen?
ReplyDeleteThe girl at work who has changed her wardrobe may recognize herself in your character and so you may feel the need to compliment her, or not.
I used a friend's name - with her permission - because it is Kitsi and it fit a character so well. Don't you know I had her in my imagination when the character was talking!
JC
Hi John! There is always that worry, yes! Recently I used a coworker's name "Jamie Grace" for a charcter, but to avoid making it to personal I used someone else for his face... a different coworker. Not the smartest move, especially since I am forever confusing them now!
DeleteDid you know fantasy writer David Gemmell lost a job because he based the character of Karnak so heavily on his boss that even a name-change couldn't hide it?
Nick