Here's What I Think About Writing

I listened to an audio book on my way to and from Windsor. It was an excellent book called Ghostwalk that I highly recommend. It is so beautifully written, and such a compelling story. In one part, the narrator, who is a writer, talks about how writing can be like being haunted. The character notes that this is a cliche about writing, but just because something is cliched, it does not make it untrue. My first experience with being haunted by a character occurred when I was co-writing with Sarah... our television program. One of the male characters would not get out of my head. He was originally intended to only appear in a small (though pivotal) role, but he just wouldn't accept that. He wouldn't leave me alone until Sarah and I figured out the larger story.
Last summer, when I was writing about Annie, Tim, and Jay, it was Jay who haunted me the most. Though Annie did her share. After the novel was finished, in editing, I wrote about what happened when Annie went to see Jay after everything had happened. That part of the novel was painful to write, and I didn't want it to happen. For days after, I was almost depressed about it, and so angry with Jay for doing what he did. Matt asked me why I wrote it if I hated it so much, and I could only reply that Jay did it, I was only telling about it. It was hard to explain, but Jay took on a life of his own and did things I didn't want him to do. In this novel, the narrator describes 'haunting' in this manner.
"You make a character from nothing, a few words, fragments of people you know or have seen from afar. And once they are up and walking, they don’t just come and go at your will. They begin to be demanding, appearing at awkward times, doing things you wouldn’t have dreamed they could. They come upon you suddenly when you’re asleep or making love. And I’m not talking about the sudden apparition of ideas for plots or new episodes. That happens, too. I’m talking about people who exist only in your head but who appear in your living room when you have temporarily forgotten they existed. When you have closed your study door on them. It’s a kind of possession. You begin to feel you are being watched."
I find writing both exhilarating and also difficult and painful. I look forward to meeting some new characters this summer, and spending some time with old friends, like Seth (the 20s version), and Olga and Fernando. Above is a picture of Jay, my spectre from the summer of 2008.