Saturday, March 18, 2017

Does Your Writing Move You to Tears?



What a good topic with which to March into spring! Please excuse the poor pun, but that’s where my head is at this morning as I’m already a little freaked with how fast this year is already moving.

Our March Round Robin topic is: Are you ever emotionally drained by writing certain scenes, and how real are your characters to you?

The simple answer to that, for me, is yes, and very real. To elaborate, I truly believe that if an author is not moved by the characters they create, then how can that author expect his or her readers to fully engage with those characters and finish reading the book?

I’m blessed, I think, by the fact that my characters come to me quite easily. I will have an image of them and usually their names, too. What happens to them after that depends on what they tell me, and that’s a statement that I believe only another author can truly appreciate.

In my very first western contemporary romance, my heroine’s grandmother had been active in the French underground movement during World War II. Please don’t ask me how I went from a ranch in southern Alberta to a damp basement in Paris where resistance fighters were making Molotov cocktails. It was all Charmaine St. Claire’s fault. As that was my first attempt at a contemporary novel, to say I was confused is putting it mildly, which is probably the reason that has become ‘the book under the bed’. If it ever sees the light of day, it will probably be a trilogy as, if I write Charmaine’s story, then I have to write her husband Robert’s story, too, before I ever get back on track with the contemporary story which started it all.

I didn’t set out to write trilogies or a linked series, but my characters became so real to me I didn’t want to let them go. Why waste a perfectly good character? I cried when I wrote the reason Lord Randolph Buxton didn’t want to father children in Cold Gold, the first book of The Buxton Chronicles. I ached for Pinkerton agent Stuart Montgomery’s unrequited love in the second book and cried again in the third book when Lady Serena Buxton, after shouldering so many worries during World War I then has to contend with Randolph’s shell shock when he returns from the front.

I don’t remember actually crying when writing either His Dark Enchantress or His Ocean Vixen, my
two Regency romances. Both books see the heroines in some quite dire situations and I felt their pain when writing some of those scenes. I’m not sure if I imbued my characters with my own emotions, or if they influenced me. I only know I wrote several scenes for both books with clenched teeth and sweating palms as I put my heroines through paces I would never choose for myself.

And to help restore my shattered nerves after writing an emotional scene I might, just might, resort to a glass of Writers Tears Irish whiskey!

Visit these authors and see how they deal with emotional scenes and what they might use as a pick-me-up.


23 comments:

  1. I certainly understand taking beloved characters into several novels, and your restorative for shattered nerves sounds enticing.

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    1. My characters become my tribe! Even when I think I've finished with a trilogy, or a series, there's still unanswered questions and more characters jump out to trip me up. One that is being very persistent is the pregnant maid from Shell Shocked!

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  2. When I scribbled my blog last night (because it crept up on me all of a sudden), I thought, "Do my characters really move me?" And that moment, I had forgotten that, yes, they do. In my last novel, The Whispering House, I can remember crying during certain scenes. Your post jogged my memory. I think my restorative would be chocolate. Irish whiskey is a bit too strong for me. LOL

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    1. Chocolate is good! Actually, chocolate and red wine is even better. What's your favorite brand of chocolate?

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  3. I often have the voice before I have the face clear in my mind. But the voice is usually enough to get me started because, yes, what happens next depends on what that voice is telling me. ;) You're right about authors understanding that one.

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    1. Yes, hearing voices is perfectly normal for writers. Not so much for non-writers who tend to step away when you mention hearing those voices!

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  4. I can picture you becoming so emotional as you write those scenes. You are definitely in step with your characters when you "feel" what they feel. Kudos to you. And yes, readers do get caught up in the story because your emotions come through the words. Thank for sharing this post.
    JQ Rose

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    1. My very first writing instructor suggested keeping a box of tissues handy when writing, as you never knew when one of your characters would bring you to tears. I didn't believe her at the time but now consider it sound advice.

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  5. Thought provoking post, Victoria. I've been reworking a romance I wrote years ago, and after rewriting a scene several times, something about the final draft brought me to tears. I feel like I finally captured the hero's inner secrets. A pain that needed to be expressed. Perhaps my author's emotions embraces the character in the most intimate way. And that's important, because if I'm touched by my story, maybe the reader will be too.

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    1. Thank you for dropping in, Shelley. I think we all recognize that moment when we have finally 'got it'. What a cause for celebration it is.

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  6. I've cried and rejoiced with my characters too. And it pains me to put them in such difficult situations. But as you say, if you don't feel the emotion, neither does the reader.

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    1. And however much we think of ourselves as excellent writers, in the end it's all about the way the reader views our books.

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  7. Victoria, I never meant to write a series of any kind either. Then I started wondering what happened to the former partners of one of the secondary characters in my first novel ...

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  8. Did you also have readers wanting to know what happened to this or that character? My Buxton Chronicles trilogy grew out of a persistent reader wanting to know if Randolph and Serena had children, and by the time I'd written the second book the 100th anniversary of WWI loomed and prompted the third. I'm about to embark on the 3rd book in my Regency series and wouldn't you know it, a 4th has already presented itself. I wish I could write as fast as the ideas come!

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  9. Victoria, most of us have a book under the bed, or in the drawer, or sometimes just on the hard drive. I was intrigued by your statement that once you have some good characters, why not put them in a series? A lot of authors do that, and it takes so much time to develop a really good full-blown character. Great post!

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    1. Thanks for dropping in Judy and for your kind comment on the post.

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  10. Victoria, I agree it is always about our readers. When we receive emails or letters asking us about one or more of our characters, we have been successful in bringing our characters to life. I enjoyed your post :-)

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  11. Victoria, don't apologize for a pun. That is the highest form of humor, because it uses both sides of the brain.
    Today, I got an advance review for my coming book, "Hit and Run," and the reader asked if it was based on my personal experience.
    That's what we're talking about, right?

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    1. Thanks for the info about puns. I did not know that and feel much better now. I always took them to be the product of a warped mind!

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  12. I do love reading authors' bemusement upon the independence of their characters. Once you create them and hand off a goal, they just sort of give a half-nod and do their own thing! Your books sound very interesting, also! The only time I found myself writing a series was definitely because, "well, it's not over! These guys have more to do!" Which of course I was not expecting at all, but hey, I just write down what the characters do. :)

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    1. Until you get used to it, it can be very disconcerting. That 'book under the bed' I mentioned actually had potential for not just a trilogy, but a spin-off quartet. Sigh. Never short of ideas, just the time to write them all.

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  13. I enjoyed your post and how real your characters are, especially your WW11 French Underground crept up on you.

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