Characters In My Head

When I think about my life, I tend to divide it into two distinct eras. BW (before writing) and AW (after writing). As a BW girl, there were a lot of things that writers talked about that I thought were one-way tickets to the crazy house. If you've ever seen the movie Alex & Emma (and I think every writer should) I was definitely an Emma.

Now, in the AW time of my life, most of the crazy house things actually ... make sense. A lot of those things have to do with characters, how they come to life in your head and talk to you and tell you how to do things. As crazy as that sounds, it's kind of true. Not in a literal, sign-me-up-for-the-asylum way, but in a more abstract, get-to-know-them way. Let me explain.

I have a whole population of characters in my mind. Characters whose stories I don't know yet, who are still a bit mysterious about themselves and their past, present and future. (Like, for example, all the secondary characters in OH. MY. GODS. and FORGIVE MY FINS. They have stories, too, you know.) Here are some of the other characters currently residing in my subconscious, waiting for full revelation:

• A girl who lives in a very different world from our own.
• A self-proclaimed science geek.
• A girl who wants to make a difference.
• A girl facing a lifetime of not knowing.
• A girl with a magical trinket.
• Four girls from an era gone by.
• A girl with a score to settle.
• A girl who told a lie and now has to face the truth.
• Five girls who play a fateful party game.

And there are countless more.

Every so often I think about these characters, I roll them around in my mind and try to figure out who they are and what they need to do. The pieces fall into place gradually, a tiny bit at a time. And, eventually, their story will smack me in my head and I'll know just what to write.

Someday, when I figure it all out, I hope you'll get to read their stories.

Hugs,
TLC