My Characters are Party Animals!
Wow, was I young.
I was looking through the scrapbook I kept during the early years of my career and found this old article from a Richmond, Virginia newspaper. For the first several years of my writing career, I maintained my private practice as a clinical social worker. It was so hard to make the choice between my two careers, but as I began writing my fourth novel, Keeper of the Light, with its painfully tight deadline, I knew I had to choose one career over the other. No regrets, although I loved working with my clients as much as I love working with my characters.
Speaking of my characters, what is this headline all about? I’ve always devised ways to get to know my characters better, and throwing parties for them was so much fun. I’d put myself in a mini-trance and imagine my characters together at a party. Did they arrive on foot, an SUV, a convertible? What were they wearing? Were they comfortable approaching one another or were they painfully introverted? I loved learning more about my characters by observing their interaction.
The first time I threw a party for my characters was during the writing of my first book, Private Relations. In my imagination, I eventually showed up at the party myself to find that none of my characters would talk to me. I was hurt and a little miffed. I finally approached one of the guys and asked him why. He gave me a nasty look and said, “You expect us to talk to you after all you’ve putting us through?” Chastened, I slunk out the door.
Okay, so now you probably think I need a therapist myself. I admit that in my early days, I overdid everything related to my writing, consumed with the rapture of creation. Things are different now, primarily due to the fact that authors must do so much more than “just write.” We must maintain our websites, write our blogs, keep up with our Facebook pages and on and on. Yet, I spent today revising my work-in-progress and I can tell you, many things may have changed, but the rapture remains the same.
I think I’ll go out on the porch and throw a party.
I love this picture Diane…you look so pretty!!…I know how you’ve blogged about getting in touch with your characters and talking with them behing closed doors but I didn’t realize you had parties for them even when you first began writing!!…I LOVE IT!!…no wonder your people seem so real…you literally give them life!!
I laughed out loud at the paper’s headline…you are really amazing, you know that?
I hope your WIP has basically stayed the same since I know you love it as is…
One more thing…may I come to your party?? (-O:
Sure you can come to the party, Margo! Everyone’s invited.
The work-in-progress is basically staying the same, but I’m still managing to make a zillion changes as I fiddle with a character or two.
If you throw a party, I’ll be there in my imagination! What a fun idea!
LOVE the photo of you!
This is one of those photos that you hate at the time, but look back at years later and wish you’d appreciated the lack of wrinkles. 🙂
I needed a chuckle today-been a couple of hard weeks. I love this…KEEPER is my favorite book by DC, so I guess it worked. In fact, it is the book that got me “hooked” on this author…it was rec. to my online bookclub by my friend, Renee…so women all over the country were reading the book and falling love with the story and the characters. I now own (I think) all of Diane’s books, and when I am stressed to the limit-I know I have said this before but it needs repeating–I go to my Diane shelf (shelves) and pick one…that helps me…I love love the trilogy…
So glad I can help you de-stress, Brenda!
‘DITTO’ Brenda!!…I discovered Diane with KEEPER OF THE LIGHT also and to this day it is my fav book of all time…I’ve read it at least 5 times over the years…I also have me ‘Diane Shelf’ and own all of her books…even tho I may have a stack of new books to read, I continually take a break from new ones and pull down a Diane book to that I must reread before going any further…especially while waiting on a new one from Diane. Can hardly wait for the reissues of BREAKING THE SILENCE and SUMMERS CHILD which have fabulous covers…will definitely buy those and reread and add to the shelf. (-O: (-O: (-O:
I love the picture! This is the Diane Iremember! …though you really haven’t changed a bit since 1987 — except – your writing keeps getting better and better!