It behaves!

[katiefoolery]

Well, I wasn’t expecting it, but it appears I have finally beaten this story into submission.  It still wants to be part of Black Fiddle but it’s willing to let me write it as a short story first, just to test that it works.  I definitely think it will be a great addition to Black Fiddle but it seems to have gathered some characters of its own who aren’t in that manuscript.  It also has guest appearances from some characters who are in Black Fiddle and I’m delighted by their interaction.  You never really see them interact with each other in Black Fiddle and even though I created them, they’ve surprised me with some aspects of their relationship.

So, while I’m still being dictated to by a story - a story that hasn’t even been written yet, no less - at least I can delude myself with the belief that it’s now doing what I wanted it to do in the first place.  And yet, I still have the feeling that I’m being bossed around.

But this leads me to a question: does anyone else talk out details of their stories to thin air?  Or is that just me?  Because I was carrying on a quite detailed conversation with absolutely nobody the other night, talking over some of the details and the rules of the characters in this story.  I always find it to be a very beneficial experience - concepts and ideas appear where nothing existed before and characters’ motivations become clearer.  On the down side, I probably look like a bit of a nut; sitting there, carrying on a conversation under my breath.

At one point, I found myself involved in a rather intense scene with one of the characters and it was just so good that I had to go and fetch a notebook so I could write the details down.

But, as I said, I must look like a total freak and I was just hoping I wasn’t alone in behaving like this.  Usually, I find myself talking to one of the characters or an outsider who’s observing the behaviour of the people in the story.  As a result of this, I now have quite a few notes and plenty of fascinating facts about this story of mine... and I wouldn’t have them if I didn’t have this strange habit.

Is it just me?  Or should I be joining the club for People Who Have Conversations With Imaginary Characters?  If it is just me, then how does everyone else develop a story before they start writing it?  I’d certainly be keen to hear any concepts that don’t involve sitting around like a loon, talking under my breath to someone who isn’t there...

Comments

[blackswans.livejournal.com]

Hmm, well.

I don't frequently talk to myself about stories out loud, but I do laugh at funny things my characters do, or frown when they misbehave--and my family thinks that's rather weird enough!

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

I don't know why they'd think it's weird - that sounds quite normal to me. ;) Thankfully, I don't speak out loud or people would think I was truly insane. I just hope no-one walks in on me when I'm having one of these soundless conversations with non-existent people...

[cat-eyes-el.livejournal.com]

*Bunhusband walks in*

BH: Hey, have you seen my-
Bun: Shh, can't you see we're in the middle of a conversation?
BH: *looks around* ... *backs out of room slowly*

[flippyfrog.livejournal.com]

Do you actually talk out loud? Or just in your head? I talk out loud only if i get excited about something, but usually it's just in my head to keep myself sane.

Though it does make me laugh. I'm almost always laughing over nothing, and that gets a lot of looks. Or grinning like a maniac. It's usually the insane characters that hang about more. I had one who could help but make horrible comments about people. She was great fun.

but anyway, yes, i do talk to characters. Though i know they're characters. I think it gets scary when you start thinking they're real people... i wrote a story once about a character who talked to her writing characters, fully knowing they weren't real, yet wishing heartily that they were. That was a fun story, i just got bored of it.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Oh no - I don't talk out loud! Goodness, no. It's sort of a combination of in my head and under my breath. I think I first developed the habit when I read my stories "out loud" without making any sound when I first started writing seriously. It gave me an idea of how the words were flowing and if the conversation made any sense.

I like the sound of that story. I think all of us writers out there would like at least one or two of their characters to be real people.

[sirgallivant.livejournal.com]

When I was eleven, I had regular conversations with an old abandoned car I passed every day on my way to school. I considered it a 'friend'. I've never spoken with story characters before but I think it makes sense, however loonish it looks. :)

And may I say that I find your icon decidedly plendiferous.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's lovely! That sounds like a story in itself, actually. And you're right - I suppose there's nothing terribly wrong with looking loonish. I've had a lot of practice, after all.

I'm glad you like the icon! It suddenly occurred to me that I didn't have a "Huzzah!" icon, so I made one to rectify that absence.

[cat-eyes-el.livejournal.com]

I don't so much talk to the characters, but to get proper reactions I sit there and think the last line to myself as if someone (or me, if I'm getting the speaking character's reaction) just said it and think what that makes me do. You can't just have someone start crying for the fun of it, they have to have a reason!

I think Dad thought I was strange the other night though when I was writing Bronte LorF in that when I wanted to work out a reaction I'd sit there staring straight ahead (and the monito is on an engle to me, so I was in fact staring at the wall) and then go back to typing again. :D

Cat

[cat-eyes-el.livejournal.com]

Also, when I still did Drama and we were writing scripts we always found it useful to instad of sitting there are writing, to have people up and saying the lines and then the next person would just spontaneously think of what they would say, if they were the character, next. Always produced better scripts than sitting down and going "err... so, Bob can say this next..."

Works with dialogue in stories too. Getting someone to say it to you and you being the character. (Or, if you're multi-talented and don't have too many characters in the scene to juggle at once, saying it to yourself and then switching and saying the next bit back)

So, that's kind of like carrying out conversations with yourself...

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Hehe - considering that very emotional episode of Bronte you wrote recently, I should imagine there were some quite strange looks on your face from time to time!

[dizzy-liz.livejournal.com]

Ha! I talk to myself often, but I don't think I actually talk to my characters. Sounds as if it does the trick though, so I'd definitely be keeping it up! Face it, artists have to weird, and as long as something good is being created, I don't think it really matters how strangly we carry on :-)

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's a very good point and I shall use it if anyone ever challenges me.

Random person: "Why are you... talking under your breath to the wall?"

Me: "I'm being artistic!"

It does help, so I suppose I should just accept it as part of the creative process.

[dizzy-liz.livejournal.com]

:-) Yes, do that! Although, sometimes, I guess people could challenge you even with such a good argument. Once we had just been to an *interesting* art exhibition, and my little brother decided (as I was getting him into the shower than night) that he'd roll around the floor in, well, not much. When I told him to get up and stop carrying on, he replied, "Why? It's just art!" :-D

[frohike.livejournal.com]

I don't talk much when I write. I'll occasionally mumble 'no, no.' and scribble out whatever I had just written.

The way I work out my stories is I just sit there and think. I think it out. Once I've got a sentence or two I like, I write them down, and then fom there I write down the next logical sentence, and then the next one. I wouldn't call that when stories write themselves though, cos this is effort, trying to pick the right words and stick them in the right order etc.
I've never really thought about the way I write before. I just think of something and then write it down. My brain goes "and then she should sneak into her best friends bedroom in the middle of the night, after all, he's the only one who believes her" when I didn't even know she had a best friend. My brain just decides "you will write this" and I go "dude, I am such a good writer I have the coolest ideas" etc.

-end of ramble-

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

All of this talking happens before I even start to write, though. I haven't begun this story, but I know all of the major characters, the "rules" of the land and the way certain people get around them. And this is simply through sitting down and talking (under my breath) to thin air.

It's a bit weird to think about how we write, isn't it? It can be such a bizarre process at times.

[the-kaytinator.livejournal.com]

*hands Bunne a membership badge*

Welcome to the Conversations With Fictional Characters Club, Evil Twin. Your t-shirt will arrive soon.

[rhianon76.livejournal.com]

*points to her comment below* Yes, yes! I want one! It must say "Don't interrupt me when I'm talking to myself" on the front, though. And then on the back, it needs a nifty icon-like design above the "CFCC" name. :D *laughs* really. I seriously want one. *starts designing something to draw on the back of her tshirt when it gets out of the wash* Dude, gotta love sharpie markers. :D

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Oh, plendiferous! Is there a long-sleeved version for these cooler months?

[gravityslave.livejournal.com]

There's a club? I'm in! The trouble with me is I find myself doing it in public. I usually notice after I see sidelong smirks on the faces around me.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

There is now! We just need some more publicity, I think.

If I do this sort of thing in public, I think I internalise it much more and just let the conversation play out in my head. Of course, this doesn't prevent me from making faces from time to time and probably looking quite odd.

[sarsalot.livejournal.com]

Oh, I talk to myself all the time. Not just writing something, but figuring out how I'm going to say something to someone/going over a conversation I had, or having discussions (usually in the shower) with myself about something that happened and the how and why of what I feel about it. I don't talk outloud, but if I'm not careful, I do mouth words/pull faces/wave my hands around, which is...interesting, when I realise that there's someone watching me.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Yes, I do that too! The pulling faces and the hand movements. It definitely pays to make sure no-one can see you when you're doing this sort of thing.

[rhianon76.livejournal.com]

You need a tshirt like the one I have that says "Don't Interrupt Me When I'm Talking To Myself."

:)

I know, it seems rather inane to people who aren't writers, I always get strange looks from them when I try to explain what my shirt means. As of late my muses have realized I've been to busy with other things to pay much attention to them. But when things start to lag I often find my attention being distracted by one or another of them, and sometimes it's in a fashion that is completely inapplicable to their story. Just randomness about their backstory or something else. Not useless, really, as it helps me get to know them better. And I get the same sorts of seemingly random expressions on my face when reacting to their story as I write or while I'm just sittin there while they're talking to me. I often wonder how it looks to other people, but I've never dared to ask. Mister knows me well, knows the nature of my muses, and knows not to comment about that sort of thing. He realizes its just the way I am, and that it might upset me if 1) he distracts me and interrupts or 2) says something that might inadvertently question my sanity. *rotfl* I tell him I'm not sane enough as it is. heh.
Sanity is such a fluid definition. The great artists were always, by today's standards, more insane than socially acceptable. So I don't let it bother me too much. It's just who I am. And it's also why I tend to be rather relunctant to talk. I don't want to frighten anyone. *lmao*

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

I do need a t-shirt like that! Or at the very least, a small sign that I could whip out whenever it's needed.

You're right - sanity is not only fluid, but highly overrated. I doubt we'd be finding all of these characters and stories in our heads if we were completely sane. And I think we're better for it, too!

[flamehail.livejournal.com]

I completely carry on conversations as the characters. I'm always wandering around mumbling, but not to myself or to a character, but as, say, Rine talking to another character, and then the other character responding, and all the narration is running in my head simultaneously. I used to walk over a mile to school and this is what I did, every day. I got a lot of strange looks from people driving by, but I got some of my best scenes that way. Occasionally I'll also actually act out a scene, but only if there's no one around. The problem is, I completely forget that I'm me or what's around me, and I put myself into moods doing it. If I'm doing an angry scene or a sulky scene or whatever and I get called to dinner, then I'm angry or sulky and no one knows why. ^_^*

So at least you're still actually yourself when you're doing it. ^_^

I also give myself a lot of dopey looks in the mirror when I'm trying to write, because I can never figure out how to describe facial expressions. So I have to make them and then try to describe what I see.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

I find I tend to stand beside my characters a lot as it is, so these conversations give me a chance to find out what makes them work. When I was about thirteen or fourteen, I did what you did and acted out scenes to see how they'd go in my stories. I tried not to do this when anyone was around, though. There's nothing worse than someone walking in on you while you're in an odd position, talking silently to a cupboard or something.

[snarkymonkey.livejournal.com]

My friend, if I could count the number of times I've talked to myself regarding plot, character or even setting, I'd still be counting. I can't seem to figure out my more detailed plot points unless I babble outloud. =3 I think it's a sign of creativity. *nodnod*

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Oh good - it does make me feel a lot better to discover I'm not alone. Sometimes these storyish things just have to be spoken aloud before they make any sense.

[naelany.livejournal.com]

You're having conversations with "interesting people", some would say ^_~. I imagine it's quite the sight to see, but I doubt you're alone in it.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, they can be quite interesting indeed. And I'm glad to have found out I'm not alone in this. :)

[naelany.livejournal.com]

Peace of mind? ^_^