Sunday

Well, Saturday was an epic fail. I pretended to write all day, until it was simply obvious that my mind just would not generate any worthwhile ideas. I sat there typing and deleting and typing and deleting. I think I successfully lost a few words rather than gaining.

I am hoping this is a stump that I will be able to overcome soon. And I think I know what the problem is. The problem is that I am trying to write the story, rather than listening to what the story already is.

Last night, my friend Ruth and I were talking about books that are turned into movies. I made a comment on how I find it a tragedy that they could not seem to make the Twilight movies (despite my undying love for them) good. Each movie seems to fail in separating the viewer from the movie they are watching. When I watch a movie, I do not want to feel like I am watching a movie -- if you know what I mean. I don't want to think about how poorly Taylor Lautner delivered his line, and I don't want to think about how Kristen Stewart is playing Bella; I just want to see Bella.

Then Ruth asked me, if I were to cast my book into a movie right now, whom would I pick. I had no answer. These characters aren't actors on a screen; they are real fictitious people. They have their own identities. Identities that no actor can absolutely personify.

Essentially, I think this is why the Twilight movies fail. It is because you can't take a book character and have an actor successfully portray them in a way that will please everyone. A character in a book is half of what the author writes and half of what the reader creates. The writer provides the shadow, but the reader must imagine the person standing there.

As the writer though, it is not quite that simple. In a way, I have to create the whole of them; but in reality, they are creating themselves. I am just merely the fingers that type down their words and the heart that needs to listen. 

So, for today, I am going to stop trying to typecast my characters and start listening to what they are trying to tell me. I am going to hear their voices and not my own. I am going to sense their emotions and provide the words for their heartbreak. I am going to let them create themselves. They might be fictitious, but that doesn't make their story any less real.