Wednesday, July 28, 2010
I wrote for fourteen years before my first novel was published, and I'm so glad I had that waiting period. I know it's a cliche to say that good things come to those who wait, but it's true. It wasn't until I was married to Mel and learned what a real live hero was like that I found the missing ingredient in my novels--tenderness with strength and a certain, optimistic focus. That was when I went back through all the manuscripts I'd completed--thirteen--and based the male leads, all of them, on Mel. And that was when the publishers took notice.
Now, of course, that could be due to the new subject matter of the books we worked on together--emergency medicine, which was all the rage at the time--but I still believe that the change of characters made all the difference.
Here's what I mean--see the picture above? (I hope I got it in the right place this time). What do you see? Mel was the photographer. He didn't see the dead trees. He saw the beauty of the flowers, the brilliant green of the living plants, and his beloved wife near the trail. So when I created a new hero for a series all those years ago, I created a widower who was still in love with his dead wife, and though his wife had been overweight, all other women were judged against his wife's beauty and found wanting. Until, of course, the heroine of the novel came along.
Mel doesn't see my gray hair--even when I let it grow out too much. He doesn't see the lines and wrinkles of a maturing body. He sees in me the woman he first fell in love with--the woman who was so embarrassed by her skinny legs and cellulite that he didn't get a glimpse of them until nine months after we started dating. He uses me as a pattern by which to judge the beauty of other women. What woman would not love a hero like that? Esepcially the older she gets.
So you see those dead, brown trees in the picture? Mel takes a lot of pictures like that. He pulls out the beauty and doesn't even see the scars or ugliness. Who could lose with a hero who focuses on the inner beauty of the woman he loves, and not on the fading outer shell?
Labels: a better hero, character, writing
Hannah Alexander
posted at
12:04 AM
Comments (13)
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Sometimes, I feel like a zombie walking through life, not noticing a thing around me as I dwell in another world. Other times, my attention is so rapt on something going on that's none of my business, I forget I'm not invisible.
The thing about being a writer is your characters take on lives of their own. Even if you're not Shakespeare. It's true. It happens to the best (and worst) of us. I've been living with my characters of "Walking on Water" for nearly a year now (it's not out until next Fall.) My book is set in Santa Cruz and I've been going there at least twice a month, to hang out and soak up the setting. We live about 40 miles away and this weekend, I took two of the kids there to the Boardwalk (we usually go along the shore and walk the dog.)
Not invisible moments: In Santa Cruz, I noticed there is no good way to wear heels and a minidress -- and adding white sunglasses with rhinestone. No. Please girls, no. Britney Spears shaved off her head too, is that next? Beachcombers do not separate the boardwalk (think amusement park) from the beach below. Gentlemen, may I just say if you are over 300 lbs? Please keep your shirts on. That way, no one will confuse you with Bond. And for the ladies? Bikini tops don't wrap under fake boobs. The two triangles sort of float there, defying gravity and many other forces of nature. I felt a little violated with all this private information I shouldn't have been privy to.
Zombie moment: Today at soccer, it is pitch black and I am writing with a pen and paper under a booklight when my daughter ran to get me. It was like she pulled me from this spell and suddenly I heard the screaming that was a buzzing noise in the background. It was a little friend who had fallen off a jungle gym. Nothing serious, but I swear I hadn't heard a thing. I mean, I know my kids' cries. I would like to think I would have disengaged for my own child, but they have been known to force eye contact.
Being a writer is an acceptable form of crazy. Didn't Dickens' characters talk to him too? And Chuck, could you spare a few? You're not using them anymore, right?
Labels: character, Research, Santa Cruz, Writer
Kristin
posted at
2:19 AM
Comments (4)
I wrote for fourteen years before my first novel was published, and I'm so glad I had that waiting period. I know it's a cliche to say that good things come to those who wait, but it's true. It wasn't until I was married to Mel and learned what a real live hero was like that I found the missing ingredient in my novels--tenderness with strength and a certain, optimistic focus. That was when I went back through all the manuscripts I'd completed--thirteen--and based the male leads, all of them, on Mel. And that was when the publishers took notice.
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