Lately I've been relishing the fact that my fiction is my world where I get to create the characters and make them speak and control their actions--a delicious fact for a mother of a headstrong toddler. But today one of my characters (let's call her M) did something completely unexpected. I thought for sure M didn't like another main character in the book--in fact, my rough outline expects major animosity between these women. But there was a flash of friendship between the two. And it felt right.
I can't even begin to imagine how many scenes this will change and how, like my toddler pouring her own apple juice, it will create so much more work for me. But at the same time, it reminds me why I make these characters. And why my children give such richness to my life. Because as much as they are a part of me, it's their quirkiness that teaches and challenges me.
I'm glad that M's showing some individuality--the same way that I'm glad my baby shows curiousity about the world by tasting everything from carpet fluff to banana peels, and the same way I'm glad when my two-year-old requests lunch for three of her imaginary friends. On pink plates. With real food. And drinks. And forks. And napkins folded in triangles.
I can't wait to see what M does next.
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8 comments:
I know who M is!!
Do you? I just realized that both of my main characters (in novels one AND two) could be shortened to M. Guess I'm hopeless when it comes to names. We'll have to rely on your superior naming skills in my fiction as well. :)
i can't wait to buy a copy of your book!
i like your new layout. did you really just have a convo with your husband over blogger? ;-D
Yup, we did have a conversation over blogger. We instant message each other across the room, too. I'm only kind of forgetting what his voice sounds like. Kidding, really, I mean, he talks to the girls. :)
so now we're having a convo over blogger.
john and i pretty much stopped talking to eachother after elaisha was born. we would just tell elaisha, the newborn, what to tell daddy. "tell daddy that the garbage is stinky and needs to go out..." "well, tell mama that the garbage wouldn't be so stinky if she had taken it out 2 days ago when it needed to go out."
it took about 6 months before we had a real conversation again. ;-D
When Chris and I were dating and it was just the two of us and we were pretending to be mad at each other, we'd say "wall, tell chris . . ." etc. Too fun.
Just for the record, did baby Elaisha ever tell John that "One of man's greatest responsibilities is to take out the trash?"
no. it's actually taken him quite awhile to figure out that it'a man's DUTY to take care of all things dirty, that are unrelated to children. although, dirty children are also half of his responsibility. ;-D
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