Fiction author Robin Brande talks about writing, reading, and other vital matters

This is another one of those times where I reveal more of my own weirdness. Why? Because you demand my total and complete honesty at all times. And because I’ve had a lot of carrot cake tonight because it’s almost my birthday and we had a family party tonight and I’m a little jazzed because I’ve had a lot of sugar tonight and did I mention my mother makes the most incredible carrot cake in the world and where was I?

When I write a novel, as I’ve just started to again in the past few days, I have to become my heroine. It’s the only way it’s fun for me. And to make it extra fun, I put her through some things I think might be interesting to try. Or at least different from my normal life, because why write a book that isn’t an escape for all of us? I’m not just the writer, I’m also the first reader, and if a story isn’t entertaining for me, forget it. No reason to get up in the morning and go back to it.

So it just so happens in this novel the heroine starts eating some pretty strange food. I can’t tell you what because that would reveal too much, but suffice to say I won’t be having carrot cake again until this book is in copy edits. I’ve known for the past few days that starting tomorrow I’m going to have to fully move into the character’s life, so I’ve been enjoying these last few decadent meals. My friend Carolyn sent me a tub of half cheese, half caramel popcorn–it happens to be Oprah’s favorite popcorn, and now I understand why–because that stuff is like CRACK and I’m not kidding, even though I have no idea what crack is like and no, I don’t want to, thank you very much.

So all weekend long I’ve been pounding that stuff back, making myself two steps beyond sick, knowing that come sunrise tomorrow morning the crack popcorn is out of my life. So sad. But writing comes first.

When I was in high school drama, I used to do this same thing. I’d go fully into living out my characters’ lives, wearing hoop skirts to school, talking in accents all the time, and once even depriving myself of sleep for two straight days so I’d know how my army nurse character must have felt.

Yes, quite psycho.

I have no idea if other writers work this way. I suppose all of us like to inject a little bit of ourselves into our heroes and heroines, but I’m not sure if anyone else actually starts dressing or talking or behaving like the characters they create. But why is it any different from what we were talking about a few days ago? Just because the characters I want to be like happen to come out of my brain instead of someone else’s, that doesn’t make them ineligible, does it?

And isn’t it possible to want to be Scully or Xena one minute, and one of my high school girl heroines another?

Or is it the carrot cake and the crack talking?

Technorati Tags: Writing, Publishing, Novels, Authors, Novelists, Fiction Writing, Writers, Young Adult Fiction, Garrett Popcorn

Posted on Sunday, October 8th, 2006 at 9:33 pm under Writing . Subscribe to responses: RSS 2.0 Comment Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.