19 June 2006

Who are you?

(Now that we all have that song by The Who that was commandeered to be the theme song for CSI...)

Word Nerd is currently being pestered by a couple characters who are NOT in her current work-in-progress. She realizes how much for non-writers this must sound like she's hearing voices. It's not like that. (Or maybe it is... Word Nerd could be wrong.)

Writers though know what this is like. There are these characters, in Word Nerd's head, who are clamoring for some kind of attention.

She's got names for these people, but that's about it. She doesn't know what they want, how they are in conflict, etc. The one might be somebody who pops up in the WIP; the other definitely not. The problem is because to deal with these characters, Word Nerd will have to put down the WIP for a day or two or three to tinker with these others. And the WIP has a 7K more words that have to be written by the end of June. (well, maybe not have to, but it'd sure be swell to get that far.)

Any suggestions for how to at least, temporarily, ignore these other characters? Anybody? Does Word Nerd let herself go for a day or two down these rabbit trails? Or is this the time for the literary equivalent of sticking her fingers in her ears and saying "lalalalala" until the next 7K words of the WIP are done?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

WN should create a blog for the two characters who are pestering her, in which they may comment on the WIP or the players therein.

Stacie Penney said...

Take a couple of notes. Limit yourself to a half page max.

That works for me, any rate.

Erin said...

This isn't an answer to your question ... sorry.

But you should find a copy of the July issue of Elle magazine. It's got an interesting article in it about female writers (how they run from "chick lit" labels, how a novel a man would write would be a "true American tale," and that same novel by a woman would be a "microcosm").

Sorry, it's not online yet.

Interesting, anyhow.

Anonymous said...

I tend to ask them what species they are, and then their planet of origin. That tends to help determine what story they're from. :)
But to be honest, my characters usually don't call first. They tend to barge in without warning.

Prahagirl said...

Word Nerd should listen to Stay_c. Her suggestion is a good one, however, I do realize that that doesn't ALWAYS work...because sometimes, like skynett said, they barge right in without warning...even after you give them a temporary home. (This is usually the way my characters react--rebels...)

Steve Kabelowsky said...

Pain killers.

Not a great answer, but it worked for Brett Favre all those years.