Who's Talking Now?

 

I never get tired of readers asking questions... about me, my books, on how I come up with my stories, or where I find inspiration. I'm an extrovert, and can be a giant flirt at times. I love to tease and joke, so when an interviewer asked where I got ideas for my stories, I replied, “the voices in my head.” The poor woman actually moved her chair back from me. I don’t know if she did so on purpose, or simply because she didn’t know what to make of my answer. Doesn’t matter, because either way I let my crazy slip. Thankfully, I have a wicked sense of humor, so I followed it up with, “Don’t worry. YOU they like.”

Thankfully, she laughed. Though my guess is she’s still not too sure about me. The barefaced truth is all characters talk. They are living, breathing entities taking up residence in an author’s head. Here’s an example. Not too long ago, I posted a picture of Antonio Banderas on my Facebook author page. Why? Because it was the anniversary of my book Blood Legacy, and it was Antonio’s sultry voice I heard in my head whenever my main character, Carlos Salazar, spoke. That sexy, low husk became Carlos to me, and because of that, I was able to convey the vampire’s brooding sex appeal and vulnerability to you as the reader.

Let me give you another example so you know it's not just me. Over the holidays, I was flipping through movie choices on Netflix, and came across The Man Who Invented Christmas. It’s a film about Charles Dickens. Not a documentary. A movie. Since I had just released, A Little Mistletoe and Magic, my own twist on Dickens’s classic Christmas story, I fired up the film to watch.

To be honest, the film was pretty good, but one scene, one line, struck home more than anything else. In the scene, Dickens is struggling to name his main character, Scrooge. Ranting, he explains why he's freaking out, and says, “Once I name the character, he will appear.”

Yep. Been there, done that. Lived it.

Saying crazy is alive and well and living in my head isn't strange, and it isn't uncommon. It's normal. At least for writers. We talk to our characters. We imagine how they look, sound, react. Moreover, they talk back. Boy, do they talk back! Sometimes it's chaos, but if their voices were to suddenly go silent, it would devastate.

So the next time you’re talking to an author and they let their crazy slip, don’t move your chair back. Move closer and ask, "Who's talking now?"

Cheers and lots of love for now...
Marianne


For more on: Blood Legacy
For more on: A Little Mistletoe and Magic