writing process
Dream Casting: Hiddles for Giggles
My sister is slightly (just a little) obsessed with the actor Tom Hiddleston, and if you don’t recognize him in his headshot, visualize him with darker, longer, straighter hair (Loki in Thor and The Avengers) or wearing an English WWI military uniform (a brief but memorable role in War Horse), or you might have seen him in a few other places.
This blog post is largely for her, and just having a little fun.
I know a lot of writers do it—come up with their dream cast for “if they made my novel a movie.” Or at least digging up photos of celebrities (or athletes, or models, or whatever else they can find online) who are a decent fit for their mental picture of various characters.
In this case, instead of casting a full novel, I’m going to find spots for Mr. Hiddleston in each of my completed manuscripts. It’ll be a little tricky, because he’s 31 years old, and I write YA. I refuse to ‘90210’ him and cast him as a teenager, so no lead roles for him. (Sorry, sis.) But let’s see what I can come up with.
Crossing the Helix trilogy (Fingerprints, Echoes, & Catalysts)
I have too many options for this one. Mr. Z, the very cool physics teacher in the regular world, or Wreiden, one of the Flecks in the alternate world. Either way, he’d be super-smart.
Or, if I want to make my sister really happy … Tayn, the twins’ father. He could pull off the flashbacks as he is now, and a little minor makeup work could age him up 5-10 years for later.
Fireweaver
Let’s just jump straight to him being at least in his late thirties by this point. Is he more Reagan (my MC’s uncle who raised her) or more Dexter (the teacher of her favorite subject)? I’m thinking more Reagan. (Hmm … now I’m wondering, who out there is more Dexter?)
Significantly Other
Ooh, this is a tough one. There aren’t a lot of options. I think he’d probably be best as the colonel who pulls my MC back into the military role she was created for.
Matters of Life and Deaf
How ambitious are you, Mr. Hiddleston? Ambitious enough to learn sign language and play a deaf person? Yes? Then Vince, the ASL specialist. No? Then I’ll change the name of the jerk pre-calculus teacher.
Stitching Snow
Again, we’ll say he’s a touch older, late thirties or early forties. Definitely Kip. But I can’t say anything about who that character is to the story just now. (Or wait, maybe Thad, at the age he is now! But I can’t say anything much about him, either.)
Like I said, all of this is just fun. But it also made me think about my characters, which of their attributes (ethnicity, age, etc.) are truly integral to the character, and which are less important and could easily be adjusted if I wanted to.
‘Fess up. Have you ever dream-cast the movie of your novel? What does the exercise do for you?
Speak up:
3 commentsI’m Not a Bipolar Writer—What’s Wrong With Me?
Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of tweets, status updates, and posts relating in some way to the bipolarity of writers. The euphoric highs of Mega-Manuscript Love, and the desperate lows of I Hate Writing But I’m Doing It Anyway, Sort Of.
I don’t get it … which makes me wonder if I’m missing something.
It’s not the first time I’ve wondered that.
It’s not that nothing about this business gets me way down (One word: rejection … yeah) or way up (Full requests! Agents acknowledging me on Twitter!). But the super-extreme emotions don’t tie to the actual WRITING OF THE STORY.
If you saw my post last Friday, you know I’m not into the super-whiny (or super-effusive) approach to much of anything. Aside from letting that writer-bipolarity dominate your social media presence, though, I imagine there’s nothing wrong with it.
Is there something right with it? Am I actually missing something? Are my emotions not getting engaged enough as I write?
I don’t think that’s it. There was a particular scene that truly creeped me out to write. And I’ve gotten teary while writing others. So I don’t think I have a death-grip on my emotions while writing.
Maybe it’s my “analytic-artist” nature. (Trust me, it’s taken ages to acknowledge the “artist” half of that.) The analytic part has never been prone to extreme emotions without truly extreme circumstances. (My teenage years don’t count, Mom.)
I have times when the words come fast and furious. I have times when the pace necessarily slows down so my brain can work out some connections. I’m fine with both.
Here’s the thing. I write because I want to. I write because I enjoy it. I write because I love reading what I’ve written, making it better, and having others read it.
The knowledge that I need to keep working keeps the love from taking me super-high. The love keeps the knowledge that I still have a lot to do from taking me super-low.
Every writer will have a slightly different process. For me, keeping the balance works. So, there might be things wrong with me, but this isn’t one of them. It’s just my way.
Are you a writer that hits those highs and lows during the writing process? What gets you through the lows? What do those highs feel like?