Another Writing Epiphany—or Variation Thereof

When my characters refuse to get friendly with me, I sometimes write scenes from their pasts that will never make the book. Usually, the scene amounts to nothing but dialogue between two people—and it relates to character backstory that makes the person who he or she is in the present.

Well, last night I was thinking about a weakness of mine—namely, digging beneath a character’s skin to really observe and sense what they’re observing, what they’re sensing. Then I remembered Jenny Crusie and Bob Mayer’s dueling blog (“Don’t Look Down!" Release date: April 4! Romantic Adventure!—see, even I can cover the talking points by now, and for those of you who don’t get the joke you haven’t been reading the blog, shame on you). Anyway, they do this he said/she said kinda thing, just like how they wrote the book (“Don’t Look Down! Release date: April 4! Romantic Adventure!) in which Jenny wrote the heroine’s POV stuff and Bob the hero’s.

Bingo.

Lightbulb moment.

What if I wrote a scene—one I’d never use--from the hero’s POV? That way I (the author) would be inside his head, feeling what he felt, seeing what he saw…which might translate to observable behavior, right? Then, I could go back and have my heroine see/hear/feel through me.

Did that make ANY SENSE WHATSOVER?

Well, it did to me because it worked.

Thanks, Jenny and Bob (authors of “Don’t Look Down,” a romantic adventure, coming April 4th!)

And no, I don’t know them personally…but I know they’re generous to us lowly unpubs and for that I owe them a debt of gratitude. The least I can do is plug their new book (did I mention it’s a romantic adventure called “Don’t Look Down” and will be available April 4th?).