Thanks for listening, everyone!

Renée, I do remember your comment about gymnastics … long time ago, though! FTR, I was never the least bit worried about you becoming one of “those” moms! I agree that parenting questions for you is a great idea, but I am more partial to the writing questions, myself.

Eric, I *am* “ridiculously introspective” in blogging and in real life, but as for fiction? My darling, if you want to ready a sampling of my stuff, all you have to do is ask.

Now, if my notes are right, you wanted me to comment on question #2, and if I’m copying correctly, that would be the one about characters being distinct and not an incarnation of oneself. I’m not sure I’m a good source on the individuality of characters, as one of the comments I received from beta readers of my novels was that my two main characters were not distinctive (one comment only, though), BUT as for incarnations of oneself … I agree that a little bit of a writer finds its way into every character. That’s not to say that the writer IS the character, but the ability to relate to characters is kind of key to making memorable characters. I think this is more about empathy than it is about “being” your character, though. You should be able to feel what your character feels, and feelings, well, kind of universal. So I guess I’m saying I wouldn’t worry about getting bits of yourself into your characters, but I would worry if you felt like every character was entirely you. Then you’d need to back up and figure out how you differ from your characters … are you bolder than this one? Kinder than that one? If all you can see is commonalities, search for differences. I’m betting there in there, maybe they just need to be brought out more.

(I should also add that I would be YET ANOTHER of the last people in the world I would ask for advice. I’d ask my sister, though! Not that that is especially relevant here, so … moving on!)

One or both of ya’ll asked me to comment on using real life as a basis for the experience of your characters. Now, personally, I do that a LOT. It’s usually not a big thing … I keep a notebook and jot down observations (how snow piles up on traffic lights, how the air smells first thing in the morning, whatever). These are the things that find their way into my writing. Bigger things, those I usually pull from “what ifs,” or even writing exercises. If something makes you wonder, doing some free writing can lead to some wonderful ideas … novel ideas, you might say.

But there are some bigger things I’ve used, too. Take an event like having your gallbladder removed (which I did, two years ago). I gave one of my characters a gallbladder attack when I needed to get her into the hospital. Her experience wasn’t identical to mine, but I knew enough about gallbladder surgery that I didn’t have to research it, so it was easier to write. They do say to “write what you know;” you don’t always have to do that (and shouldn’t!) but sometimes it fits in and works, so why not?

I guess what I’m saying here is that I see no issues with using real life as inspiration, but writing it down exactly as it happened could turn out to be a lot more like technical writing (or a memoir, of course) than fiction, so you also have to consider how your characters would react and what would be different. It has to “fit” into your character’s world and life situation, if that makes sense?

Collaboration … haven’t done a lot of it outside of technical and magazines. But when you have good collaborators, it can be a beautiful thing!

Okay! I think that’s everything and certainly I’ve already written a metric shit-ton more than I planned to, so … carry on! Looking forward to the next installation! (When will that be? DO make it soon!)

Love from Lipstick Lady

Eric and I will do part 2 with the rest of the questions, soon!