For the past couple of weeks I’ve been hard at work. Every spare minute has been spent hunched over the keyboard, editing my manuscript. I’ve neglected this blog, Twitter, and the Internet in general, remaining oblivious to world events. There’s been no evening television with my husband, no watching Doctor Who on Netflix, no Pinterest. No nothing.
Then this past weekend I had no choice but to take a break. My mother-in-law came to visit for our daughter’s 13th birthday. We don’t see her often, so we stayed busy from morning until way late.
Several times I was struck with this odd sort of wistful, sad feeling. It took me a bit of time to figure out what it was: I missed my characters.
That can’t be normal. Right? I mean, these people aren’t real. How could I miss them? But there I was, wishing I could hang out with them instead of whatever else I was doing. Waiting for the weekend to be over so I could get back to them.
Have other writers ever experienced anything like this? I hope I’m not the only one. But I can’t ponder any longer. It’s time to sign off here so I can go play with my imaginary friends.
(Okay. Definitely not normal!)
Totally normal. Well, normal for an author, at least, but that’s not really saying much, is it? We write stories because we love creating new worlds. Nothing wrong with wanting to live in them for a while – as long as you know when to come back to earth again!
Good point, Jen! And you’re right — writers have to be a few degrees off center in the first place. Why else would we spend so much time and effort trying to beat words into submission?
Thanks for the comment!
Hi, Sherri — just found your blog via Caryn’s and had to comment on this! I absolutely couldn’t agree more about missing characters while away from them. In fact, it happened so deeply for me that what began as a stand-alone novel turned into three different ones. As I edit the third now, I am already so sad about having to say goodbye to the characters who have become like friends over the past two years. I think it’s a great thing, though — how lucky are we to have such a wonderful connection with our work?