Sherri Cornelius

Oopsie, a glitch occurred when I posted this, and it showed an unfinished version. I’ve fixed it now.

I’ve been thinking about my huge breakthrough yesterday, the realization that sometimes I resist writing because I don’t want to feel my characters’ emotions. Yet I don’t remember having this problem with the previous book, and I was trying to figure out what exactly had changed from the previous book to this one.

For sure, I identify with the current main character in the WIP more, in that she is a contemporary young lady with father issues, so that may be one part. But though I’m more familiar with that situation than, say, a woman who is in love with her dead husband’s brother as in my previous book, I’m still drawing from the same well of my experience. Both women were abused at home and fled to foreign lands, and in these foreign lands they are both uneasy, searching for their place. Those are the main feelings to which I must return over and over.

Then there is the difference of contemporary fantasy vs. medieval fantasy. In this book, I’m pretty much using the language that you see here, modern and conversational, and in medieval fantasy I use a bit more formal language. That could create distance that using my “real” voice can’t.

Here’s another thing, and this might seem weird, but difference might have something to do with the number of POV characters each book uses. While both books are in 3rd person, the medieval fantasy uses several points of view, and the contemporary uses only one. Switching POVs to get the reaction of the other major players in big emotional scenes seems to offer a way to complete the circle, so I don’t feel as lost as the characters. I remember one specific example where I was writing an emotional scene, feeling more and more uncomfortable, until it was time to switch POVs, and once I switched it was quite a relief. Even though I know and understand what the non-POV characters are feeling in my WIP, I channel them and work through them.

Anyway, those are my thoughts today. What do you think?

Today’s post will probably be a rambler. I’ve been out of bed for exactly 17 minutes, and my brain is still firing with the energy of the dream I just had. It was all about trying to get someplace, but losing my keys, almost missing the bus, and so on.

And there were a lot of black guys in it. I don’t know about you, but my default dream character is white, I guess because I am, or maybe because I don’t interact with African Americans on a daily basis. I deal with more Indians, but still not enough to impact my dreams. (I don’t get out much, obviously.) So once I woke, that aspect stuck out at me. It didn’t in the dream.

In my stories I don’t really have a default character. They speak to me, and their voices tell me who they are. The details of a character always comes through dialogue. So I have a twofold question for you: What is your default dream character (presumably out of your control); and do you work different races into your stories, or just let them come as they will?