No matter how many beautiful, brilliant words I give her, Melody never fails to say whatever she wants anyway. And it’s not just the her own dialogue she commandeers. She takes over the plot and even the theme.
Seriously. The theme? She can’t even leave me the theme? I think this might be the first time one of my characters actually usurped my theme power. It’s been a wonderful surprise. You see, Melody’s fate is set by her family’s legacy, societal expectations, and men. Her personality, her goals, her actions, even her life philosophy is painted by someone else’s brushstrokes. My original idea for her was to introduce her to this wonderfully flawed hunky hero who opens her mind and heart to the possibilities of choosing differently. The problem is, that’s not what Melody wants. I’ve rewritten chapter one four times and chapter two twice. I quit counting how many replots I’ve done. Melody just would not cooperate. It seems she doesn’t want to be shown a world of possibilities by a hunky hero or anyone else. And when I say hunky, I mean hunky. I modeled this guy after every sexy athlete, every hot nerd, every scruffy-jawed, chiseled-chested underwear model all wrapped up in my sweetheart of manly-man real-life hero. How could she resist? Still, she persisted. Melody is her own woman. She will discover her own path and use her own compass and create her own happiness. Her happily-ever-after is not written by the pen of her family’s legacy, society’s commands. The writing gurus tell us that we must know and communicate our characters’ most ardent desires. All I have to say is that it would have been nice if Melody would have revealed hers to me before I wrote four first chapters and two second chapters. She didn’t, so I finally forced her to create a bucket list. After I wrote ten entries, I thought I was done, but she wasn’t. Her voice whispered one more item--to live free. That’s it. That’s what she wants--to live free. Having a man show her a world of possibilities still forces her to choose from his possibilities. It's this unflinching desire in her that not only makes her a more interesting character than what I had originally created, but also tweaks the theme. True happiness is found not when you find the right soul mate, but when you are true to yourself. At the end of her obligation to live as others would have her live lies her one chance to live free. And so it is with us. So now I’m 10,000 words (but no usable chapters) in and I already know this story is going to be an adventure. If I know Melody at all, I am sure the adventure will be all hers. I’m just happy to be along for the ride. So while I’m off to replot again, I’d like to know what other writers do when their characters take over. There are a million character interviews out there, but none of them helped me understand Melody like the bucket list. GIve it go and see where it leads.
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AuthorDee Linn loves words. When she was in the third grade, her exasperated teacher told her she'd probably talk to a pole, if she happen to be sitting beside it. Not much has changed except that now she says it in writing. She is a single mom of four, a teacher of teens, a cheater at board games, and a lover of life. She's a Kansas girl, but travels to all kinds of places in her head with characters living there, some of which she's sure she's created. Some, she's not sure how they got there. But they are way more interesting to talk to than a pole. Archives
November 2017
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