Tapping into the Universal: (subtitled: No, You're Not Subconsciously a Serial Killer)
What's the scariest thing you've ever done? Skydiving? Pish-posh. Giving birth? Thousands of women do that every day and live to tell the tale. No. What's truly frightening?
Yeah, that.
Pulling your deepest, most inner demons to the light of day and slapping them in the middle of your story.
Okay, Boatswain is already shaking her head because her characters tend to talk more amongst themselves and she writes it down like an Imperial Secretary; however, I'm a Pisces, and therefore, odd, and tend to empathize with just about anything I meet: movies, television series, Hallmark commercials. Doesn't matter, and obviously it also doesn't matter that none of the people affiliated with the things I mentioned actually exist. Trifles.
When I write, it's the same. I have to know my characters enough to empathize with them, to sort of step in their skin and channel them onto the page. When I'm writing from one POV to the other, I am that person. Which is a little frightening, especially if you're playing a character either not at all like you (the villain) or someone really like you. In both cases, you're pulling feelings from within you, feelings that therefore exist.
If you're pretending to be a serial killer, you try to convey the rationalization of why you kill; and if you capture it and put it on the page, you suddenly realize: Dude, I just justified cold-blooded murder. You wonder about yourself…and you definitely stop willy-nilly saying throwaway lines like, "I'm going to kill you" when someone does something to irritate you. Because now you're thinking, well, obviously I could, how sick am I?
But pretend you write fluffy stories. You're still going to have a villain. But say it's a cold-hearted mother-type or the manipulative hussy who's wreaking havoc at large. You step inside that role, write out this magnificent scene, and waltz off stage left. You look at the scene again, and you think, "I need a shower. Am I that much of a manipulative bitch?" You ask your husband, which is always a bad idea. Oh, sure, he answers it correctly if he has any sense whatsoever ("Of course not, honey"), but deep down, you knew there was not really a right answer here; there was only a wrong one.
So you move onto your heroine, someone in which you can identify, someone who fears rejection—and you pull out all the stops, pull up every bit of drama from your high school prom, crank up the Def Leppard ballads—and write the Blackest Moment where all your heroine's neuroses bite her in the ass. Then you re-read it, and you realize if anyone from high school reads your book, they will immediately know your heroine is you. Your critique partner reads it—and though she was never in high school with you and therefore is unaware what a complete loser you were—and says: "Wow, this sounds just like you." It will not matter that your scene does not take place anywhere near a senior prom.
But here's the thing. Emotion is universal. Communication is about relating to another individual, to be understood, to be accepted, and writing is one of the most basic ways to do that. Love and conflict (i.e. rejection, bias, hate, misunderstandings)—that is universal. Every story ever written can be distilled to one or both of these themes. Emotion is universal, like song; but your voice, like lyrics, is what makes the story yours to tell. Don't worry that everyone who's reading your book is thinking "this sounds like her reaction at her high school prom" because it's much more likely they're thinking, "God, I've so been there." And that's what you were shooting for, right?
You as a person are separate from the writing you put on the page. Just because you write about serial killers and nymphomaniacs and God forbid, the woman-superior position, you’re not a killer or a slut—and no one is going to think you are. Okay, some crazy interviewer someday might say, “Where do you get your inspiration for your sex scenes?”—but those are people who don’t understand; and they are certainly not people who should be taken into consideration when you’re putting your words on the public page. Don’t be scared; don’t avoid it because people might think you’re bad or wrong; and don’t judge yourself for writing it. You’re not doing yourself or your characters any favors by holding back. You are not your characters, no matter how much of yourself you might find within them.
Just thought I'd send out a little reassurance in case anyone thought they were turning into a serial killer. Unlikely. Though you might want to take some time to decompress, play with some puppies or try channeling a character whose idea of a dark side is much like Sally Albright.
What's the scariest thing you've ever written and why did it bother you? What author do you think can tap into that Universal Factor, that "I've so been there"? Any book or scene that comes to mind? Anyone else wish Santa was blogging about men again? How many just caught on that the Johnny Depp picture has absolutely nothing to do with my blog?
Books by the Crew
83 comments:
1.) Sorry the blog was so long, guys.
2.) Sorry I have to go do folders today so we can talk about this more...but Terri promised to keep an eye on your guys.
Notice I agreed to keep an eye on - NOT be responsible for this lot. Uh uh, no way am I doing that. LOL!
Not too long. This can become a serious issue, especially when you are first starting out. Because writing a romance and having others read it can feel like putting your diary in the USA Today.
Hellion, you think your Piscean bent is weird...I'm a Cancer...waaay weirder...
I think possibly the scariest thing I've ever written is my current WIP. It's about a woman who is deeply, irrevocably attracted to her cousin.
I'll leave you all to fill in the blanks as to *why* this freaks me out so much to write about it.
As to the Johnny Depp picture..this is him as Sweeney Todd, no? What if someone's deepest fear is submitting to the barber's chair? That's a pretty vulnerable place to be. You must have absolute trust in this person that 1) You won't walk out looking like Cyndi Lauper and 2) You walk out at all!
I like long blogs...gives me longer procrastination time. I don't have folders but hand written tax forms for a few hundred students that need my attention... ugh!
Inside a killers head? When I wrote my villain's side of the story, I went into the kid that was keeping companies head. He was sane, and unintentionally involved in the Lupsicoeur massacre.
But it's such a nice pic of JD! sigh...too damn hot for words, that man!
Tiff - you took the easy way around. I'm so disappointed. If anyone could channel a crazy person it would be you. LOL! I mean that in a good way...
Cinthia - Her cousin? Really? The very thought makes me cringe and want to take a shower. Alone. Ick. LOL!
And I had a friend in HS that had the Cyndi Lauper doo. But she did it on purpose. LOL!
LOL. I love Cyndi Lauper *dancing*
Hellion- Folders.
What?! You told me to say it!
I wrote a rape/torture scene and to the date that's the most brutal I've gotten (And scariest too) but eventually I'll have to top that. Not so sure what's going to come up with the current WIP. I'll have to see. LOL
Hellion- brilliant blog.
Thank goodness I don't have to write in third person. I'd hate to see what my inner psycho mind would come up with.
I love you Hellion.
I love the blog and the Johnny Depp pic, so what if it doesn't go with the blog, we're writers we can justify anything.
The scariest scene I have ever written was a scene where a guy slits a girls throat in absolute cold blood. He lifts her up by her neck against a door, her Jimmy Choos fall off her feet. (Love that part)He calls her a very derogatory term,slits her throat, drops her body and sits down and eats one of her HO Ho cakes then leaves her apartment. I had a really bad day at work, so it was like therapy for me:)
I am a person who also relates to commercials and everything emotionally, so I really enjoy writing emotional scenes. I love getting inside character's minds.
Scariest scene I wrote was my heroine's 'rape' and her sisters rapes and murders. All from her POV and the heroes.
The more you guys comment the more I realize I'm a total wuss. I don't write scary stuff like this. My hero came within inches of running over my heroine with a car. But I made that more funny than freightening.
I think I need to dig deeper...
LOL. There's nothing wrong with not writing the dark stuff Ter. You do emotion. And while there is a different kind of emotion to be found in that dark scary moment, sometimes it's better not touched.
My hero was more than a little distraught at watching it all happen. He did kill the perpetrators. It was very tough to write.
Thanks for making me feel better, Sin. *g* I have scenes - very angsty and emotional - that are in my head but haven't been written. My heroine faces her heart being ripped out then has to choose whether to crawl back and grovel or risk losing the man she loves. And the hero has to be strong enough to let her make the decision. He wants to push and make her listen but realizes he can't make her love him enough to trust him.
I'm more the emotional ripping apart type I guess. Not that all these scenes you guys are talking about aren't highly emotional and heartbreaking. I just don't use the external stuff as much.
I need to work on that part.
See, my hero was listening in from a bug. But you didn't know that until the end. I can't imagine having my hero watch. Wow. That's torturous, Tiff.
And Lis - that scene sounds amazing. I've mentioned before how that boxer dude in the first Plum really freaked me out. He was so evil and nuts and though JE didn't write that from his POV, she still created that feeling of total evil. Made my skin crawl just reading the scenes he was in.
I dunno about Tiff, but writing a torture/rape scene in the first person was very emotional. It's difficult to blur the lines between your heroine and you.
See, and I need to work on the groveling. That emotional heartbreak. My heroine and hero(es) have learned how to shove their emotions down and just do their job. Which is harder to bring out that heartbreak emotion into play. I don't do emotion. I do action. LOL
yeah it was hard to write both pov's Sin. I cried and cried. This whole book has been tough, it's very very dark. So dark I can't compare it to another romance. And her sisters being raped was a sad sad scene. They were young. one fourteen--already dead, skirts hiked up. Nick gelded the defiler.
So Sin - if your heroine had to be the one to commit the horrible action, would that be harder for you?
Say, she & the hero (man she loves) are being held by the bad guy. BG orders her to kill someone or he will kill the hero. Could you make her do it?
No. And I'm going to leave it at that because I don't want to spoil anything I plan on writing :)
I don't think I could do it either. But as a reader, I know I would be on the edge of my seat. LOL! That sure would be a page turner.
And for readers, are you more forgiving of heroes in action books when they do something like this - kill the bad guy - than you are of the heroines? Do readers have a problem with the heroine doing the killing or serving up justice so to speak.
I've read RS books and I don't think I'd have a problem with the heroine doing the action.
I've read the scene Tiff is talking about btw - very powerful. From both angles.
I meant- no- as in I have no problem writing it. I plan on writing it. With a child involved too.
But I have no qualms about the hero or the heroine killing in order to serve justice or keep someone safe. I even enjoy books where that might be the case.
I agree Terrio, Ramirez the boxer dude was scary, almost too dark for Plum in my opinion. It didn't match the humor of the rest of the book. Although Janet balanced the two well.
Don'T sell yourself short, enotional writing can be just as tough as writing the nerve wracking murder scene.
Tiff~ one of my dreams is to write a book from a male POV. Kudos to you.
Sin you are the master of evil. No one can touch that scene in MD.
I hope that rings true for DV babe.
Ladies, we all write emotion from different angles. We all write scenes differently. If we had one sentence to base a book off of, we'd all have different books. You're fabulous in your own right.
So true, Sin. Which is why we are such an eclectic bunch. LOL!
Since Hellion pointed out that being able to write from the mind of evil can make you question how much evil you have in your head, do you also worry about what others will think is in your head.
I know when I decided to write an erotic romance, I really debated about using my own name. I mean, people I know could (probably won't but could) read it. Do you have more of a problem when it comes to what you think of you or what others think of you?
Tiff, that sounds like a very emotional, powerful scene...and very sad. Obviously. (Call me Captain Obvious today.)
Cinthia: *LOL* I have lots of Cancer friends, so I can...agree. No, kidding. Okay, I have to ask, what is the adorable critter on your shoulder? And you're right, subjecting yourself to a straight razor shave shows HUGE TRUST. *wonders how she can put that in her current WIP*
Sin: Staplers. What? We're not naming office supplies?
Lisa: I love you too! Remind me not to get on your bad side though. Yeesh! (The Jimmy Choos is a great imagry though!)
Terri: You do dark emotional angst in a completely different way than Lisa's Jimmy Choo-scene...but I also think Lisa also did great emotion with her shower scene--where the heroine was crying. *sighs*
Yes, the idea for this blog came from two sources: Tessa and Heath Ledger. (Strange how those two are always linked, huh?)
Tessa said the Golden Rule to Writing was to write the scary stuff. The emotional dark stuff you're afraid to write because that's the good stuff. So true.
Heath Ledger, well, I've been moping about him all week. And when I heard about the interview he gave where he said he was on anxiety & sleeping pill meds because his role as The Joker had messed with him so much, he couldn't sleep--I wondered, how far do we as writers go in our writing--and how hard is it to come back from that sort of in-depth character "channeling"--does it continue to bother you later? Or are you able to separate yourself from what you just wrote?
I've often wondered that myself Hellion. If I was a better writer, would it be possible to seperate myself from the POV and still continue to convey the depth and emotion it takes to carry it all out? I still don't know.
RIP dearest Heath. Your memory shall live on forever through your work.
I haven't written anything really scary yet. It's all still swirling around in my head. You really hit the nail on the head with your blog, though, Hellion. I would be one of those people thinking - "OMG they'll know it's me" or "How could I have come up with something so depraved!"
And, again, it sounds like you've probably been pondering the same thing about Heath (and any really good actor) all week that I have! How do they keep their day job from taking over their life? How do they utilize this gift they've been given without letting it destroy them?
Sorry to go off topic, here, but I just couldn't let Hellion's typo go without an homage to the DH!
Hellion said: 2.) Sorry I have to go do folders today so we can talk about this more...but Terri promised to keep an eye on your guys.
How much more interesting that last part would be if this was a blog populated by men. Terri would have such an interesting day!
It makes you wonder how the authors who write the really scary stuff do it. I mean, I would never want to be in the head of someone like Hannibal Lecter.
And I love Irish's idea. I won't even take any extra pay for doing it...
Marilyn Monroe had a similar problem, maybe worse--I mean, we at least *know* Heath is an actor--and he played such a variety of characters, so well mind, that you just think he's more a good actor than any particular "role" in life. (I think of him as more as a good actor than a heartthrob, which I think he wanted. Okay, he was still sorta a heartthrob, but a credible one.)
Marilyn Monroe was Marilyn Monroe on and off screen. She was so frustrated with being given ditzy blonde roles to play; she wanted to be less the heartthrob and more the credible actor part--which I think she was. I think it takes a LOT of work to look as sexy as she did. And she just didn't look it, she breathed it, walked it, greeted her postman with it. I think she definitely got worn out from her role--and that was part of the reason she died young.
Plus I believe that whole conspiracy theory about the Kennedys were behind her death, but that's another blog.
Marilyn never took the mask off--wasn't able to, it was like no one would let her, everyone's expectations were up--and I think it messed with her.
Hey, I'm trying to get more guys on the ship...but the application process is HARD...and I have to interview them all extensively. I haven't found a one that passes our extensive and exhaustive tests.
Babies.
Great Blog Hellion!
Wow, all dark and stuff today.
I think the scariest thing I've ever written was a stalker scene, from the stalker's point of view. That's as creepy as I've gotten. I'm like Terri. Nothing too creepy for me.
I think the scariest scenes I've read are the beginning scene in A Time to Kill, by John Grisham (a girl's rape scene) and the first scenes in Lovely Bones (rape and murder). But, the scene that stayed with me for weeks and weeks was the scene in Beloved by Toni Morrison where the mother is attempting to kill her children so that they don't have to be returned to slavery. Morrison took something that I've never been able to understand (infanticide) and made the circumstances surrounding it so real, so horrifying, that the reader could feel the mother's fear, her pain, in fact, almost understand what she was doing while you heart broke for her and her children.
Awful stuff.
So, anyone pet any puppies lately? Visited any newborns? Seen any rainbows, encountered any leprechauns?
Yeesh, that is disturbing--isn't that amazing how you can take something so horrifying, but be able to communicate it in such a way that you could understand and empathize with why it could/would happen? I think it's wicked-cool.
No, no puppies for me. And no babies in the office lately (believe me, we all go crazy if a baby visits us.) And the weather outside is gray and overcast, and supposed to drop from the 40s we started out at into the 20s or lower.
Same weather here, but I'm going to visit my friend's baby tonight. That should be nice.
And I agree with you from above. Very cool stuff.
Oh, and PS, Johnny looks good in that pic, even with the crazed look. That's talent.
No puppies or babies here but we're back around 60 degrees so I'm happy. *g*
My stupid email is not working, damn it. Grrrr...
I can't usually read or watch rape scenes but for some reason read the Lovely Bones with no problem. I think because the rest of the book is so unique and powerful.
You need to read Cane River. A woman did research into her ancestors who were slaves and turned the facts of their lives into an incredible story that spans four generations of women.
What they survived is amazing and even more so since it's based on facts. Definite eye opener.
Sounds like an interesting read. I'll add to my TBR pile. :) I love to read powerful women stories. Well, and powerful men stories too, actually any powerful story. But, obviously, I relate better to experiences about being a chick.
Hi all.
Interesting blog, Hellion, and what I've realized--after reading all your incredibly brave posts--is that I'm too scared to go scary.
I bought into that "Secret" stuff--what you put out into the world, you get back--and now I'm even too superstitious to *say* what it is that scares me.
That said, I can tell of lesser phobias:
Tidal waves
Extreme cold
Dark water
Getting lost
Okay, f-it! Terrio says I'm not very "refrained" anyway so I'll tell.
I'm deathly afraid of pedophiles. I've become so neurotic since having kids; I look sexual predators up monthly on police websites. And if any of them live within a 10 mile radius of my house, I do drive-by-lookings, plugging their address into mapquest and getting back step by step directions to their front door. I've even seen one out in his yard! I vacillated between horror that he looked so normal, and overwhelming rage that he could do such a thing to a child.
That said, I won't let my poor kids out my front door without me being there, and now I'm afraid I'm raising them to be socially inept, paranoid and fearful.
And I don't think I can write about all of this because I would do one of two things: 1) shut off and write the scene clinically and not be able to wash the stain off my brain, or 2) go to that very dark place, and not be able to wash the stain off my brain.
What does one do? Should we be going to these places??--because i don't think I can.
And that creature on Cindy's shoulder is a marmoset. I took that picture. The monkey had on a fancy dress, climbed up Cindy's arm (and btw, she's terrified of monkeys, which is why, I suppose, she has the writing balls to tackle HER fears)then posed on her shoulder.
And btw, Hellion, everytime I think of this post of yours---“I'm sorry, too, Q. I thought I was going to have to pull a Giselle. But if this was your attempt to point out that men think about more things than sex, then I'm really laughing that you referenced FREUD. Hello.”---I blow a gasket laughing.
Here's the link, Marnee.
http://www.amazon.com/Cane-River-Lalita-Tademy/dp/0446530522
It really is a very good book and stayed with me for a long time.
Marnee Jo said: "But, the scene that stayed with me for weeks and weeks was the scene in Beloved by Toni Morrison where the mother is attempting to kill her children so that they don't have to be returned to slavery. Morrison took something that I've never been able to understand (infanticide) and made the circumstances surrounding it so real, so horrifying, that the reader could feel the mother's fear, her pain, in fact, almost understand what she was doing while you heart broke for her and her children."
That's almost worse, isn't it? To make something so horrific the sane choice.
My God.
And somebody needs to tell a fart joke or something.
I can so see a heroine farting at just the wrong time. LOL! Who would do that? I bet the Captain would do that. Or I bet you have already. LOL!
We are walking a razor's edge today, aren't we?
In front of a Senior who had a crush on me.
Needless to say, that was it for the crush.
And in my defence, we were at camp, and they kept feeding us meat-substitutes--you know...made of beans????
It's just like gunpowder for the colon.
I can't blame Cinthia--monkeys can be rather freaky...and all up in your space. She probably didn't "get over it" so much as freeze up in HORROR, as I would if someone suddenly draped a snake around my shoulders and said, "Smile for the camera." Dude, would I spaz out...me and Indy, boy do we hate snakes.
And pedophiles. Dude, that's a dark one. I can't imagine trying to get into that POV and convey that in a sort of way that didn't make you immediately want to prescribe to Prozac and biweekly sessions with a therapist. (Atonement skivved me out for this reason; here I was loving that actor who played Young Pitt in Amazing Grace, and he was a freaking perve. *shudders*) I don't know if I could ever get into a pedophile character and pull that off; I can put myself in the place of a serial killer (so to speak)--and see the channeled rage of a horrific repressed childhood.
Usually child abusers are people who were child abused themselves--not that justifies anything when you're a mother (*grins*)--but in that regard, yes, they do look like everyone else. I think the key is to be willing to put a face with this sort of person, what circumstances have contributed to his actions. I mean, on the internet, they're just faceless and depraved. Sure, they'll still be depraved, but can you see the circumstances that might have led to this?
Then you got to wonder: what type of crap is this? Plenty of people whose circumstances were crap--and didn't become pedophiles, murderers, thieves, rapists, etc, etc...and some who had all the best life could offer (great parents, a secure life, money to spend) and they still turned out rotten--so how do you write those people without making them two-dimensional? How do you make evil a character that's not flat (without freaking yourself out while you do it)?
I am so glad you appreciated the Freud comment. *LOL* For one I felt rather dumb for flying off the handle and Terri had to calm me down...and then I was like, "What? Freud is an example of men not thinking of sex?"
J Perry Stone said: "That's almost worse, isn't it? To make something so horrific the sane choice."
That's exactly what I wanted to say.
And I completely understand your pedophile-phobia. Everytime I hear something else on news where someone has harmed a child, I fill up with rage.
Ok, by request, a fart joke....
Doctor, "What seems to be the problem?"
Patient, "Doc, I've got the farts. I mean I fart all the time,"
The Doctor nods, "Hmm."
Patient, "My farts do not stink and you can't hear them. It's just that I fart all the time. Look, we've been talking here for about 10 minutes and I've farted five times. You didn't hear them and you don't smell them, do you?"
"Hmm," says the Doctor,
He picks up his pad and writes out a prescription.
The patient is thrilled "Great doc. This prescription, will it really clear up my farts?"
"No," sighs the Doctor, "The prescription is to clear your sinuses. Next week I want you back here for a hearing test."
The Captain has NO COMMENT about farting at the wrong moment. (Which of course means: yes, she has.)
Gunpowder for the colon! You should be the bean company's marketing guru...that's hysterical!
God, and that would be just as relevant to this blog...I mean who hasn't done something like that and been totally horrified? And I have YET to read a romance novel where something like that happens--what's that mean? Does that mean no one else is bothered and embarrassed by body noises in front of your significant other? OR is it just so unromantic we just are going to pretend it never happens and this is fiction, we can do what we want?
OMG, I just spit soda at the screen!
Hellion said: "is it just so unromantic we just are going to pretend it never happens and this is fiction, we can do what we want?"
This is the case. Living in a household with a guy who believes his gas smells like roses and he's merely perfuming a room, I don't want to read about this. Somehow the "dutch-oven" effect isn't the stuff of my fantasies.
However, if you guys can make such things romantic, please, have at it. I could use some help.
What, no one else's husband is like mine? That's it, I'm taking it up with the DH. He claims all guys are like that. I knew he was just saying that.....
First off - J - I DO NOT believe every writer has to go there. Nor be willing to go there. I'll leave that to the people who can and want to do it. But not me.
I'm just totally terrified of my daughter disappearing. You know, all those kids (adults even) who are there and then *POOF* they're gone. Freaks me the hell out.
I can't stand for her not to be in my sight. Which drives her crazy in the summer when she wants to go out and play. Where we live there is no front yard in which I can watch her out a window. The poor thing is lucky she sees the sun at all.
About writing farting heroines into a story, I wouldn't be shooting for romance but more humor. Come on, that would be hysterical. Though I'd be more likely to have someone else do the farting, it would take guts to make your heroine fart and still have her be cool. LOL!
Nothing like the term crop-dusting (which I hear often) or the infamous come here routine and I walk into a radioactive area bad enough to gag a maggot.
Tomorrow, I'm writing about babies or something happy. This turned wicked crazy today.
But knowing me it will be about drowning in a bathtub or something equally dark. Yikes.
PS. Hellion it was 54 when I got to work this morning. I just came from lunch, it's 20 and hailing. We need to move to the Bahamas.
And the farting not being romantic - I've got the perfect case.
My ex called it *marking* me. Yeah, he still has all his limbs but barely...
LOL! Crop dusting and marking! I'm so glad I'm not in the minority. I will continue to believe that gas is side effect of living with the male of the species.
The worst is in the car in the winter time. My dad thought he was so damn funny....NOT.
So lets switch out of the dark/scary place and into the dark/naughty place. What about writing sex? I admit I write it better and I'm more comfortable writing it in a dark room. LOL! I'm really not ashamed of it, it's just what works for me.
Ever worry when you're writing that this crazy stuff might get published and you'll end up with some perv coming to all your booksignings? LOL!
Girls can be equally as gross. My best friends windows never rolled down in her car when we were teenagers and she'd fart and turn the heat on.
She's lucky I love her and can hold my breath. LOL
Nope, I write sex late at night. Like midnight and later. I gotta get into the groove of things. Gotta listen to an upbeat club song and I just bang (hehe) it out.
I haven't tried putting on music but now I'm hearing *bow chica bow wow* in my head. LOL!
Bang it out. hehehe... Funny.
Terri said: "So lets switch out of the dark/scary place and into the dark/naughty place. What about writing sex?"
Ever write a scene post coital? They're so lame! It's like all the creative, um, juices are dried up.
And thanks for that, terri. I'm glad I'm not required, as a writer to delve in the pit of my own despair. Can't I be just as effective as entertaining??
And I have the disappearing fear too.
Marnee Jo--I'm forwarding that joke to my dad. He's a fart connoisseur.
PS. Ter, if I ever had a book signing I wouldn't be able to decipher between the pervs and the people there with me at the signing. LOL
But J, that's when you get the best dialogue. That's when defenses are down and people say things they would not have said minutes (lets hope it's hours) before.
We can be perfectly entertaining remaining out here in the light!
Pedophiles really, really creep me out. I'm the same way with my kids, Ter. I'm just now letting them branch out and they can't go anywhere without half the neighborhood with them. I may be able to write the adult affected by being molested, but not from the pedophile's point of view. No can do!
I agree with Terri, I'll let those who can do. I have a really hard time reading the types of storylines with graphic rape and violence. Slavery stuff is right out. I remember having nightmares for months after watching Roots!
As for the farting. That joke is hilarious, Marnee. And no you are not alone with the DH who thinks his smell like roses. I get that comment all the time. His favorite now is the pull my finger with the kids. Or standing next to one of our dogs and saying "Bad doggie!" And I know I read about farting in a romance book and cannot remember which one it is. I'm tempted to say it was a SEP, but I can't be sure.
Yeah, I have to say when I wrote this blog about getting into character's dark side, I never thought "your pedophile character's dark side". I thought I was being dark and deep with the whole rape/mayhem/and serial killer stuff.
Apparently I was wrong.
But you have to say, that if you ever needed to write from the POV of a mother who lost her child, she's disappeared--and you don't know if she's dead or alive--that even if you never experienced that personally, I'm sure you could do justice to the panic/fear/hopefulness/hopelessness that I'm sure goes hand in hand with a missing child.
Kittens. Puppies. Smiling hunky, ab-hard hotties. Okay, I've found my happy place again.
Marnee, there was not a chance you had the only farting husband.
Terrio said: I haven't tried putting on music but now I'm hearing *bow chica bow wow* in my head. LOL!
I'm assuming it's not The Chipmunk's version that my son has been singing for the past two weeks! LOL
SEX! *does spastic heron with rickets dance* "Let's talk about sex, bay-bee, let's talk about you and me..."
Where do I do it? In my room. Alone. Late at night with POTC playing in the background (WHAT?) and practically naked. Yes, I know I'm always practically naked.
(And I totally stole that spastic heron with rickets from Leslie Langtry's new book; God that was a funny line and so true, if my Mardi Gras 2007 pics are anything to go by.)
Terri is so right about post-coital dialogs! Let me give you some examples, guess which ones are real:
1.) "You're right, I was just using you for sex."
2.) "Weren't you on a diet last year when you were so thin? What happened?"
3.) "Did I mention we are cousins?"
And you say I'm the bad one of the group. Yeesh.
That's a new one: sex to the Chipmunk's Anthem.
Did you really have to just give us the image of you writing in the dark in your (HP/POTC covered) room half naked? Huh? Really?
And then move onto the cousin thing? This was supposed to lighten the mood not make us all want to take a shower. Alone! Not together. See? Now you've sent me over the edge...
I *said* which ones were real. The cousin quotation would be the one that *didn't* occur. Sheesh.
Thanks for summing up my nerdom so succinctly.
Oh, doesn't Alvin sing "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot, like me?" in the dishwasher? LOL! That commercial cracks me up!
No, Irish, I wasn't thinking of that one. But it is the same thing they use in the movie. What is that movie rated anyway?!
Thank goodness. I thought they all were and I just missed that story somewhere along the way. LOL!
With my ex-boyfriend I was always saying the dumbest things but thankfully he thought they were funny. After our first time I just blurted out "TWO!"
Yeah, I felt like an idiot but he found it endearing...LOL!
My post-coital dialogue consists of
"huh?"
and
"nuh ah."
You all are most impressive.
And as for the cousin thing ... you mean to say you've never met a distant cousin (whom you maybe see once every 5 or 10 years), and didn't have a moment of "hmmm"???
I can think of worse things to look at on the walls (or screen) than Jack. LOL! I have Robin Hood - which isn't bad either.
"TWO" terri. As in times???
Again, impressive.
Technically TWO meant that at that moment I had officially *been with* 2 men. It was only 1 up til then and he was baaaaaadddddd.
So, I was celebrating. But TWO fits for that as well. He was goooooodddddd....LMAO!!!
I wrote a short story about a little girl who was abused by her father and, while on a home visit, relives the experience while in a dream state - only to find herself upon re-awakening with a bloody pair of scissors in her hand.
I worked with emotionally disturbed children at the time and so the scenario of abuse was one that I was familiar with. What disturbed me was that I couldn't write a happily ever after ending for her. I wanted to write an ending for her in which she was allowed to bring all the things she liked to collect with her to a beautiful house with rose covered arbor on the side - where nothing else could ever be taken from her again.
That's so sad...it's sad when even in fiction you can't give your characters the happily ever after they deserve. *sighs*
we all need a girls' night out, I think, with lots of drinks.
Santa called me and told me what her post was about, and I couldn't help feeling hollow inside.
that said...very provocative post, Hellion.
Man, that's seriously deep. I think I'd probably short out my computer keyboard if I tried to write that.
J - San Fran. Drinks on you. *g*
Great googly-moogly, ya'll! I've read so many replies my eyeballs are spinning around in their sockets like slot machine barrels (or whatever they're called).
Hellion, J is right, that was a marmoset and I was so freaked out, I nearly wet my drawers. Furry primates give me the heebie-jeebies and this critter's owner just plunked it on my shoulder without even asking!
Marnee Jo, thanks so much for the fart joke! Loved it! Tomorrow is my aunt's 83rd b/d. I'll send her an email with the joke enclosed...she'll howl!
J, I'm still chuckling over our conversation and your comment about spanking the intellectual monkey, as it were. Bwah-hah-hah!!
Note to self: Read the damn posts before you post your own!
Having grown up with two brothers, their friends and dozens of cousins - fart jokes have a special place in my heart!
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