A friend of mine who’s read Headlong was asking whether or not I considered myself a Lily or a Hazel. So I started explaining that, while none of my characters are actually “me”, I share feelings, insights, beliefs with each of them in some way, as we do with all people; we are all people, right? And I have to accept them as people to be able to write about them at all. Otherwise they might as well be stock characters, paper dolls, and –
“That’s not what I mean,” she said, with the, um, charming impatience she’s known for. “What I mean is, are you more like Lily, or more like Hazel?”
So much for deconstructing my text, however feebly. “I am Hazel,” I said.
“OK then,” she said. “That’s what I meant.”
So – are you Lily, or are you Hazel? Readers?
October 27, 2008 at 11:28 pm |
No contest: Lily.
October 28, 2008 at 6:21 pm |
Although, all my attempts at writing have only been so-so, I’ve found that characters can also be a person we might have been, if we would have made other decisions, or leaned towards a different mindset in our lives then the one we did. Who would we have become if we had gone down another path?
October 29, 2008 at 2:49 pm |
Lily or Hazel? No contest, Hazel. I will follow the “rules” as long as they make sense to me, if they don’t….I’ll follow my conscience.
I loved this book. I’ve read all of Kathe’s novels, of course, and headlong is right up there with my all time favorites, Budda Boy and Kissing the Bee.