But I realized recently that, while my character was coping with rationed food, I had unintentionally dropped ten pounds. What the heck?! Ten pounds in two weeks. Seriously.
Then last night, after writing some serious abandonment scenes for a character of mine, I ended up having a series of increasingly disturbing dreams centered around abandonment. Go figure. I recently read someone-or-other said something-or-other about Make it worse for your characters because it will show the reader what they are made of. So, I have been busy making it worse.
I guess that my subconscious picked up on that and decided to make my dreams get worse and worse all night long. Thank goodness for my cat, who woke me up with an awkward poke as if to say, "There, there, human...you can shut up now."
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| Imagine this without the creepy horse head, and with the dreamer having short red hair, and a big black cat on my chest instead of an incubus...well, you get the idea. |
Maybe it is "Character Karma." (I don't think so, since I just made it up.) But what if all the bad things I do to my characters will be revisited on me...? Okay, I am not going there. Even the thought of that freaks me out.
Ahem, where was I?
Oh, right...so, I am ten pounds lighter, I am sleep deprived, and my cat thinks I am a nut case. I do, however, have nearly 50,000 words to show for my efforts, and I am pushing 300 pages! I am in the home stretch. (Knocking on wood.)
I have two beta readers reading now, and another beta reader in the wings waiting for me to finish before she starts reading (this will allow me to have staggered feedback and, hopefully, keep the progress moving). In case I have not mentioned it lately, I love my beta readers and I can't wait to get more feedback.
In the meantime, I might stock up on Ambien...and vegan chocolate...and really good bread...to help counter these painful side effects of writing.
I'm going to go start writing scenes of food rationing right now! Ten pounds, wowzer. But in all seriousness I do think that where the mind goes, the body follows. Spending that much time mentally focused on a subject, I think it's only natural that there might be physical reactions that coincide.
ReplyDeleteGreat work getting so far! But this scares me. Maybe I've gained those five pounds writing about creatures who need to eat more than regular humans do? My characters do eat a lot...
ReplyDeleteI think I'll try writing about a food shortage next book! Or maybe characters who subsist on healthy greens and a well balanced diet?
Oooh, good idea. I will have to write about food abundance soon. Unfortunately, this is Book 1 of 3, and things are just going to get worse in Book 2... What have I started?!?!
ReplyDeleteI can definitely see how the writing mind can affect the body. The body, as always, follows the mind. When I write a scene, depressing or heart-wrenching, the tears sometimes appear.
ReplyDeleteCats are like that, but ten pounds? I know women who would love that. I would love that.
ReplyDeleteOh my - sounds much more successful than my diet! I'm sure the "losing my mind" part won't be THAT noticable. : D
ReplyDeleteAhh!! That's scary!! But I know what you mean. When Jaina is in a really intense moment, I get so nervous until I finish that scene. If she's paranoid because she thinks someone's watching her, I feel like someone's on my tail the rest of the day! And since I'm on book 1 of 3 as well, book 2 HAS to get worse.
ReplyDeleteBTW sorry I've been so slow with critiquing lately! I'll try to get your ch1 done by Saturday.
Lmao! I love how everyone's going to jump on the TZ Wallace Method Writing Character Karma Diet now. :) I can see the interviews now:
ReplyDeleteReporter: So, you say you've lost ten pounds! That's impressive. How did you do it?
Writer following the diet: I'm following the TZ Wallace Method Writing Character Karma Diet, so I started writing some news scenes into my book in which my characters are stranded on a deserted island where all there is to eat are coconuts and fish they have to catch with their bare hands. My personal transformation has been amazing!
Anyway, no Ambien, Wallace! You know that stuff could kill ya'! Go for Valerian or something... or maybe Sirius can sing you a lullaby. ;)
I have some valerian...
ReplyDeleteI don't believe in character karma...I don't believe in character karma...I don't believe...
But I do sometimes find myself acting like my characters. To this point I haven't had the experience of acting like more than one character at a time. I do have multiple POV characters, so I expect that to happen eventually.