Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Fri, Jul 16 2010
What's your main character reading these days?
I had to clean off a set of bookshelves this week, which meant moving many items onto another shelf and making it look temporarily messy and overly-stuffed. I don't like the clutter, but when I step back and look at the bookcase doing double-duty, I realize how much of life is represented in all that clutter. There are photos, boxes of holiday cards and other correspondence, office books, novels, books on writing, phone directories, ring-binders full of vocal music, files and even old vinyl LPs. Some of the items date as far back as the 1960s. In a way, the bookcase chronicles many of the interests and the work of my life. I wondered what it would be like to visit the book shelves of a protagonist in a novel. If we wandered into a main character's library or office, would we find everything in its place? Would there be handwritten journals, momentos from past loves, photographs, corkboards full of announcements and invitations? Would the walls be full of art? Would there be a space heater? A favorite mug? What would be written on the calendar? And what books would line the shelves of the room? Whose biography would he or she have chosen? Is there a Bible? A cookbook? A travelogue of Tuscan back roads? Our character's life would be easier to read if we knew what he or she reads.
posted at: 18:01 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
I had to clean off a set of bookshelves this week, which meant moving many items onto another shelf and making it look temporarily messy and overly-stuffed. I don't like the clutter, but when I step back and look at the bookcase doing double-duty, I realize how much of life is represented in all that clutter. There are photos, boxes of holiday cards and other correspondence, office books, novels, books on writing, phone directories, ring-binders full of vocal music, files and even old vinyl LPs. Some of the items date as far back as the 1960s. In a way, the bookcase chronicles many of the interests and the work of my life. I wondered what it would be like to visit the book shelves of a protagonist in a novel. If we wandered into a main character's library or office, would we find everything in its place? Would there be handwritten journals, momentos from past loves, photographs, corkboards full of announcements and invitations? Would the walls be full of art? Would there be a space heater? A favorite mug? What would be written on the calendar? And what books would line the shelves of the room? Whose biography would he or she have chosen? Is there a Bible? A cookbook? A travelogue of Tuscan back roads? Our character's life would be easier to read if we knew what he or she reads.
posted at: 18:01 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
