I put Eleanor Rigby on my play list for Glimmer Girls. I thought at first it was a version of Life Crazy. But I'm listening now and I see the connection. Clara, in the midst of so much attention is lonely. Dilly, sequestered away and kept from the world - lonely. Johnny, who can't commit to a relationship because all his energy goes to keeping his sister safe and happy. Molly, working her but off to keep the hotel running, but she really loves to paint.
Clara comes into their lives and changes everything. For the better in the end. I hope. But before she comes it's Eleanor Rigby.
Emotion is so important to the story, it drives my characters actions. The need to feel better. So it's good I can feel those things.
The problem is that when life crazy floods ME with emotions I can't write. The feelings sit in the pit of my stomach, making me feel sick. When I feel sick I want to go to bed and pull the covers over my head.
Isn't it interesting that the very feelings I need to feel in order to write characters that readers relate to cause me to shut down, keep me from writing. I've always had too much emotion for my brain to process. I retreat, pull in on myself, hide. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, I don't have the time or opportunity to spend days holed up in bed hiding from the current version of Life Crazy.
I've committed myself to writing through the crazy - at least for this week.
On another note, I discovered yesterday that I can write a five hundred word essay in twenty minutes, even though it takes me all day to write fifteen hundred words of a novel. So along with committing myself to writing through the crazy I'm also going to write for an hour straight out every morning before doing anything else. I hope this is not doomed to failure. To get an hour of quiet in the morning means the getting up at five am routine. I'm not good at that.
To tell the truth I think the reason it takes me all day to reach my word quota is that I'm writing in a room full of teenage kids. Five in the morning is starting to look much saner than when I first mentioned it.
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About Me
- Kate George/Bodacious Betty
- Ms. George has always been easily distracted by books and has a life long love affair with mysteries. Her early influences include Mary Stewart and Agatha Christie. Ms. George began writing at an early age and by age 25 had written her first book, a truly awful novella about a marine biologist. She then wisely took a break from writing. Ms George has always loved animals and they find their way into her novels on a regular basis. The dogs are often based on her own canine children and their fictional antics are usually rooted in the truth. The incident with the crazy skunk in California Schemin’ (March 2011) is not fictional. For the record, the dogs would rather stink than be washed with peroxide, baking soda or dishwashing soap ever again. Ms. George is currently living in Central Vermont with her husband, four children, three dogs, and two cats. She once had 28 chickens, all named, none of them especially keen to lay eggs. I'm sorry to tell you that Hermione and Speckles were eaten by coyotes. The rest were given to good homes to avoid any further emotional distress.
