Colin attacks and a lesson is learned

So, this is about an interesting event that actually happened a little over year ago. For those of you who don't read my books, Colin is a character with a lot of charm and a penchant for humor/practical jokes. At the time, he was usually busy picking on Neasa, his best friend's little sister, or his buddy Harbin.

The day in question, I got to be his subject of constant torture. Lucky me... Among friends, it still lives in infamy as the day I officially took a swan dive off the diving board of sanity to swim in the deep end of insanity. I've since learned how to float between the two. Curious yet?

I was working the odd second shift, a 3-11pm deal, not my usual night time working hours or my characters' usual playtime. Unfortunately, a girl I couldn't stand was also working and, as usual, bugging the shit out of me for no reason. Now, my first book had recently come out and I was pretty proud. Even being self-published, my books are quite the labor of love and several people help me. She was making those hidden little comments that I detest. You know, the nice dagger style. I was doing my best to ignore her, but she was riling up someone else too with all her comments about my "characters".

Let me pause to say that I'm well aware that my characters are not real, but when I use my imagination they can be... so, I'm legally sane...

Anyway, Colin was stirred up by the fact that I was stirred up... being tired wasn't helping the situation either. After a particularly snide question of, "Do your characters say things about stuff in your real life... like me? I'm not in your book...blah, blah, blah..." it all went way south... as in pack the SPF 5000 south.

As I'm trying to play stupid, my vision is overcome with a clear as day picture of Colin loading a cannon, pointing it at Ms. Annoying, and plugging his ears. I guess he wanted me to know exactly what he thought of her. He also obliged by calling her a string of names, phrases, and other things that can not be shared in your company, but I'm sure you can imagine. Of course, trying to appear sane while this was happening was an interesting experience. I excused myself to the bathroom where I laughed my ass off. (I'm sure she heard me laughing hysterically. At the time I hoped she thought I was laughing at a fart or something. Hey, I was reaching for any excuse at that point.)

Thankfully, she left shortly after that. Not so thankfully, the episode with Colin gave me writers block and had me questioning my true grip on sanity. --I've since learned to deal with a "who needs sanity" attitude--

So, I decided to employ a technique a writing instructor once showed me. Yes, I actually took some writing classes, hard to imagine but true. I wanted to have a "conversation" with the character bothering me. For fun I decided to do it on my little-known, just recently birthed, forum board. I created a separate room and Colin and I went to town with our little chat.

The chat can basically be summed up as me trying to explain that a character should follow orders and him trying to argue that he's real... Best gem of the night: "Of course I'm real, I'm hiding in the parking lot pretending to be the big ATT truck... come kick me and see."

Well, that started a lot of character interactions. As fun as they are for my fans (and thank god for them participating), they are also very helpful in the writing process. I get to understand a little bit more about how my characters work and they get to release some steam at more appropriate times.

If you'd like to check it out, my forum is www.mcflat29fanclub.myfastforum.org ... just tell them The Jester sent you. My characters aren't always on, but when they are it's a party.

Lesson for this post: Sometimes you have to change up the rules a little bit to find what works for you. Don't be afraid to go a little crazy and see what it brings. I won't say I follow the typical rules when I write, hell I NEVER say it. But what works for me, doesn't work for everyone and vice-versa. We all have to find our own ways of doing things. Have a little fun finding yours.

And now, it's enough reminiscing and time for bed.