Dorothy L. Sayer said that she was so in love with her Lord Peter Wimsey that she didn't have time for other relationships. I think authors often fall in love with our characters and I think that is a good thing. If we don't love them how can our readers? Last fall I wrote a novella called The Reluctant Belsnickel of Opelt's Wood with the intention of telling a story about an old childhood tradition I grew up with. In the process I created Oliver Eberstark, a quiet, good-hearted man who was raised in the woods by his grandfather. The story was well-received and has garnered wonderful reviews but, after I published it, I missed Oliver. I missed him a lot -- so I decided to write more about him.
I am having such a good time writing these stories! Some are sad, some are romantic, some are very funny (my buddy Ray, who ha been reading them as I work on them, said the one about the kids who build a tank out of an old washing machine makes him laugh every time he reads it.) So I hope you will keep an eye out for it.
This blog post is part of the April 2012 A-to-Z Blogging Challenge. Thanks for visiting.
4 comments:
How wonderful. I can see how one would fall in love with a character you created. It's like designing the ideal mate. Thanks for your visit and comment on my blog, Kathleen.
Karen
I completely understand this. I wrote in a character as a foil that didn't quite work. I considered deleting him but I found I couldn't. I'd grown to love him too much. So much so that instead of an epilogue I'm giving him his own story.
Sounds like a lot of fun. I have not tried writing fiction, but I often fall in love with others' characters.
Sounds like you're having much too much fun!
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