As I approach the end of one story line, of Equiano's sister Olu, I have decided to make her hard life even more difficult. Of course she was kidnapped at the age of 12, and enslaved on a rice plantation for over 20 years, then had a harrowing escape, and now finally when things are looking up for her, I'm going to hit her with post-partum depression. Why? It's hard to describe why as a writer I do certain things with my characters. I have an outline of how the story will go, and how it will end, but as I write at times the characters lead me, and I find myself following. I tend to think through scenes and passages before I write them; that's just the process I go through. Think, write longhand, type. That's my process. So although one part of me wants Olu to just be happy, the writer in me feels this stage in her life is right, it's appropriate, it fits.
As I near the end of this storyline I find myself slowing down in my writing, not wanting it to end, just as I do when coming to the end of a good book. I will need to read and edit and revise for weeks, maybe months to come, but the writing of this storyline is nearing an end. And I am beginning to miss my characters already.
Hi Sis, Nice post. My feeling is that you'll have your characters forever, after you've created a story for them. And the rewrite does take a while. Look forward to more news.
ReplyDelete