Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Knowing it Inside Out

School holidays and writing are like oil and water. Or shampoo and marshmallows. Just not mixing well. Fortunately the universe sent a swat team of mosquito's to bite me at exactly 4am so that I would be forced to get up and write in the peaceful, though itchy, wee hours of the morn. Which I did.
At the moment it is lots of notes on motive, action and consequence. Nothing is simple and you have to try and think of everything. Your character does something: why do they do it? Who will it affect? Did they have an ulterior motive? Who else knows about it and does that matter? Will there be long term consequences and if so will that be obvious now or revealed later? Why are there so many peanut butter allergies in the world?
Reading some notes aloud to someone (ignoring any looks of long suffering) shows me large holes in things no shove of a quick cork will remedy. If they read it to me (more ignored suffering), better still as I can take note of holes and further questions I need to ask. Consistency I guess is the key. This isn't easy for an inconstant person. Playing the writer and the reader is hard. You have to know everything yet pretend at the same time, you know nothing unless it is revealed. Like catching the train and noticing that you have your top on inside out and having to just go with it.

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