Wednesday, February 7, 2007

A Day of Synchronicity

While I flipped through page after page of historical property deeds at my job, several names popped out at me as they are wont to do. I have lists of great names I've set aside for further writing projects that I've culled from all of these marvellous documents. Hilarious ones, old-fashioned ones, names that instantly have a personality attached to them.

But today for some reason, the names of my own fictional characters were waving frantically from the computer screen, desperate for my attention. Names from two different novels I've been working on for a number of years now. One of them I've recently dusted off to pass by my critique partners. One I left in the dust when the thrill of a brand new character swept me off my feet two NaNoWriMo's ago. That's a writing marathon during the month of November when all you do is write like a maniac.

NaNoWriMo really gave me a wonderful set of characters who brazenly shoved my other stories into the mud. But the others are always on an eternal pause, or more rather like the looping footage on dvds on the menu page. The big scenes loop around in my head over and over, even while I'm working, writing another story, walking my dog, hanging with my honey - no matter what, they wait. Today it seems they became more like the portraits hanging in Hogwarts. They took the initiative and grabbed me by the collar to ask 'what gives?'

I'm coming! Best of all, I'm going to see "Miss Potter" tonight, because that stars Ewan McGregor who is the model for one of those characters. It takes place in Victorian Britain, and that's where my story is set, so you can see how anxious I am to watch 'my' character lurking behind the one I'll be watching tonight. Feeding the muse. Mmm. It's going to be delicious.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hope you enjoyed Miss Potter.

I'm a history buff, so looking through all those documents sounds interesting to me. It would be neat to see some of the names, especially the ones that are unusual.

Kelly Boyce said...

Och - you went to Miss Potter without me?! How was it?? I went to Catch & Release last night. It was FABULOUS. Loved it.

Julia Phillips Smith said...

I wanted to make sure I saw it before it has a chance of leaving. Besides, it's absolutely multiple-viewing material for me. I'll have to own a copy when it comes out. I'm still good for another walk up to the ticket window.