Today I have the wonderful and very funny author of The Year of the Chick talking to us about the voices in her head. I posted my thoughts on her book yesterday and you can read them here.
Romi, I have heard other authors say that they 'hear voices in their head' and that is how they write their books ~~ the characters are telling their stories. Not being a writer myself, that concept has always intrigued me.
When some people hear voices, we get them medical attention, others end up becoming writers. Does this happen to you? How do you come up with your stories?
Hi Susan, that's a great question, and one that will ultimately reveal that I'm mentally imbalanced. I'll start by saying that I should've been getting medical or psychiatric attention for years now, but instead I became a writer. I'm sure myself and a lot of writers have that "head crazy" in common. Usually we can contain it, but sometimes it trickles out in social gatherings, when we have that sudden "aha!" burst of inspiration. Usually when that happens people look at us weird.
It's awkward.
The first book I published was a collection of humorous essays, so not a lot of voices in my head for that one, but fiction? Fiction and its characters can drive a writer mad.
In my case it was doubly confusing, since the main character and story of "Year of the Chick" are loosely based on my own life. Therefore it was OH SO EASY to play conversations in my head and decide how the dialogue should flow, because I know my character inside and out. In fact, sometimes a conversation or topic that began in real life, expanded and blew up to become a brand new scene for the book. Anytime that would happen (many times), I had to re-organize my brain, to make sure the
fiction stayed on the fiction side, and that the real life memories stayed catalogued in the actual events of my life.
At this point I should mention that taking a shower is essential in coming up with brand new scenes. That may sound a little weird, but taking a shower is a regular activity where I know I won't be disturbed, so my imagination immediately takes off once I turn on the water. It has almost become a Pavlovian dog-like psychological experiment (i.e. water turns on, voices in my head commence).
It's hard to explain all the "head-talking" to friends, but I'm grateful for it, because I've never been more proud of anything I've done than I am for "Year of the Chick," and I'm beyond excited to turn this book into a trilogy.
So thank goodness for A: an active imagination, and B: a long mane of hair that takes FOREVER to shampoo and condition :-)
Romi
Brief bio:
I am Canadian, and here are some strange personal facts:
-I wore denim-top-to-bottom in high school (there is a direct inverse relationship between how much denim I wore and how few tongues were launched down my throat at school dances...or anywhere in high school at all).
-I'm continually baffled by that Malaysian baby whose father let him smoke two packs of cigarettes a day. That baby had so many fat rolls, and I thought cigarettes were supposed to be slimming.
-I always hated those insufferable couples who would cuddle and make out on the subway...until I became half of one. But now I'm back to being none of one so I hate them again.
