The guy in the middle is the writer.
His name is Elmo.
He wants to write an action adventure novel, or a paranormal romance, or... maybe eve a western. Possibly a suspense/ thriller.
The problem is, Elmo's kind of geeky. His life is average. He plays online games a lot and hangs out on Facebook because in-person crowds make him nervous. Girls don't think he's cute, but he'd like a hot date.
His dog likes him, and he saved the neighbor's cat from being run over by heroically dashing out into the street, grabbing it up and diving for the grass but landing on the pavement instead.
The cat freaked, and scratched Elmo's arms and back. Elmo broke his right big toe trying to run away.
Do you think Elmo, as Elmo, will make a strong narrator?
Does he need to change his personality to be a strong narrator?
Is anyone going to want to read what Elmo writes if he's writing using his real identity? He can't make life work in his favor. Do you really think that makes him qualified to be a strong writer?
You and I can be supportive and tell him it's the power of his desires and his imagination that will make his fiction both dramatic and compelling.
But Elmo wouldn't believe us.
Elmo's praying for that full-blown full-moon transformation to become someone people will want to listen to.
So he's thinking- nice guy or evil wild man?
Which way to go? Who would be the better writer?
We really and truly are someone different when we write successfully, but the question is the same as every werewolf has faced throughout the centuries- can we control who or what we become when the full moon of writing illuminates the inner recesses of our minds and hearts?
10 comments:
I'd read about Elmo. But I kinda like slow and boring sometimes.
Maybe my problem these days is I'm the same person when I'm writing as when I'm not. Hum, I need to shake things up a bit perhaps.
Slow and boring might be hard to sell to a larger market, MOTCI, but I do get what you mean.
Wait for the next full moon, Charles!
If there aren't voices in Elmo's head driving him to give them an outlet, he doesn't need encouragement, he needs a different hobby. :)
A different hobby? Like running for political office? That would explain voices in his head...
Maybe a different wardrobe could help Elmo.
If he dressed as the time-traveling lost Beatle, it might work, Sidney.
The thing is, playing online games and hanging out on Facebook isn't Elmo's personality. There are all different kinds of people who do these things. Elmo's major issues, so far as I can tell, are his name and his looks, both of which are changeable if he really wants to. When he's writing, though, his real personality, who he is inside his head, is presented to the reader without the handicap of his looks, or (if he uses a pseud) of his dweeby name.
I'd write about Elmo as someone who's caged by his exterior and the expectations it sets up in the people around him. Maybe it's even dragged him along the wimpy dweeb path growing up, because people looked at this weedy little kid with the bad haircut and dorky name and "Doomed To Be A 40-Year-Old Virgin" clothes who always had his nose in a dumb book, and treated him the way their perceptions dictated. He responded -- fighting those expectations, unless he had an incredibly strong personality at a very young age, would've been all but impossible -- and became what they made him.
As an adult, though, he might decide he's had enough of this crap. He might decide to remake himself according to HIS vision of who he is, not anyone else's. Under the right circumstances, darned right he could be strong, and even heroic.
Would people's view of him change? No, not right away. They'd probably laugh at him at first, and maybe even later. He'll have to get stubborn and persevere, and won't that prove he has inner strength?
Damn, this could be a great book....
Angie, who has too many projects already :)
I'd buy that book, Angie!
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