Well, I'm thinking about writing a book.
Not really a new thought for me, I have about four books started and am still slogging my way through most of them.
But this book would be different. This book would be about me, AND be fictional at the same time. I have started a few fiction books, and have a work in progress that is about me, but not a fictional book about me...
I guess this blog is about discovering why this book frightens and excites me at the same time.
If I start this book, I don't want to just get a few chapters written and then shelve it. Once I start this book I intend to follow it through to completion. That's a big step for me. I am great at starting things, but I'm the master at leaving them unfinished and going off to start the next new thing that interests me.
I can't even count the multitude of projects begun, some mostly done some barely even started, and then left to mildew and become moth-eaten on a shelf or stuffed into a closet or packed away into a drawer and forgotten.
But this book can't go like that. I have decided that I have way too many unfinished projects to simply start another with the same attitude of whim and abandon.
One of the reasons this book frightens me is that it means putting myself into a character that can be read on a page. I pride myself on knowing "me" pretty well... but do I? I fancy I know myself a lot better than most people know themselves, but is that enough to enable me to characterize myself? Am I really honest enough with myself to put myself on a page and make people really be able to identify with this character? And if I CAN do that... can I make people love me?
I guess I'm frightened of being so absolutely transparent.
Why is it so different from the non-fiction books I've started that are about me? I would think that would feel pretty transparent... but for some reason it's quite a different thing.
Ah well, we shall see. Thanks for joining me on this ramble!
Hey, Lavender, don't panic yet. You don't have to put *You Exactly* on paper. You can create a character *inspired by* you. You know, whenever a movie puts "inspired by [book title]" you know they merely drew a few ideas and mostly made it all up. Or at least you can tell yourself that's what you are doing, and if the end result is astonishingly like...you can claim the credit. And if its not...well, that's what you meant. If at first you don't succeed, erase all evidence that you tried!
ReplyDeleteI've always wondered if people would love me if I was a character in a book or movie...and i think it all depends on which part of my life they were reading...i think it would be an interesting adventure, and i would love to read it someday. i think the difference would be that you aren't talking about yourself anymore. i mean, you are...but you're not. it's not like writing an autobiography; those always have to have a moral and make you look good. fiction doesn't...
ReplyDeleteLol, well said on both counts! And thanks a lot for the encouragement... no, really!! =]
ReplyDeleteThis is going to be quite an adventure!