I was so amazed the other day I was writing. My main character told me something I hadn’t been able to find out.
I have done my homework and written about her. Background, hopes in life, best memory, worst memory, favorite food and all kinds of hates and likes.
But I could not found out what had happened to her parents. I scrabbled down “mother dead, father in prison.” I thought that it didn’t matter much. They were not part of her life any longer.
When I wrote a dialog between her and her lover the truth revealed itself. The lover is annoyed about her opinions about how he treats his father. He asks her how she turned so wise on the subject. She replies (without me pausing at the keyboard) “when my mother shot dad during a fight and then shot herself. I was twelve.”
Aren’t these kinds of moments amazing?
First I thought that her parents' story didn’t matter much in the first place. And then my own character tells me what happened and proved how wrong I was. Her parents' fates were most vital.
0 comments:
Post a Comment