Writing. Life. How often are they one and the same. The more I write, the more I realize that my work absorbs my experiences and my experiences seep into my work. It is a very fluid process. Not noticeable, perhaps, most of the time, but for some reason this morning I see through it. Now. Today. This moment seems to tear back the curtain between myself and my creativity and I realize everything is a story—everyone is a character. Perhaps characters stand out to me most at this moment. Perhaps this is because the people around me feel very real at present. The last several days have felt alternately more and less real than usual: beloved alumni are coming home to visit for Spring Break, current students are stressed about projects and deadlines, I am tired from too much grading and too little sleep, my children are emotional teenagers. People in my world are living viscerally all around me…except the ones that aren’t. The memorial service for Jamie is today. She now lives only with us, with those who knew her and loved her. But that is life too, somehow, and it looms large in my mind, both as privilege and as heavy responsibility. That too is visceral.
So I find myself sitting here considering Tony Hillerman’s view of characters—that if you create real enough people with strong enough voices they will tell you their story. Well…maybe. As a “plotter”, I don’t know how I feel about that. But as a human, I know without doubt it is true. My story is my own. I couldn’t live as anyone else. This is true of my friends…my students…my children…even dear Jamie, authentic and others-centered to the end. And now comes the hard part. The writing. Translating the living breathing essence of humanity into words on a page is daunting. Trying to make it just right is overwhelming. So, maybe take a step back. The next time you are aching for realistic dialogue, instead of writing and deleting again and again. Stop. Listen. It is all around you. How would your sister (or mother or best friend or worst enemy or…) convey the words you are trying to compose? How would you say it? How has it been said to you in the past? How do you wish someone had said it? Where writers seem to go wrong is in thinking that writing takes place outside of themselves—that it is something they ‘do’…they ‘write’ instead of seeing themselves as A Writer. I think that the best writing comes from within. Our experiences—our world and the people in it shape our characters and allow us to create new, real, vibrant, living people if we will just draw upon this resource. This of course doesn’t mean that every character is someone you know, but it means you take every experience of knowing and use it to inform your creation. Use it to make characters who breathe and love and die with passion and humanity.
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Wendy Picard GorhamWendy lives and works in the midst of words everyday--English teacher by profession, and writer by passion! Archives
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