Memorable quote:
“These aren’t our words, we just wrote them down.”
I have utterly mixed feelings on today’s podcast. He (from what I took of it) focused on the fact that we as authors often feel that the characters control the story and we are simply the translators of what happens. While I get this – Lord knows how many times I’ve bitched about Rosina because she refuses to freaking cooperate – I am automatically put off because of how he brought it about.
This week is aimed at channeling the dead and letting their voices take over. I am not a spiritual person, I’m a religious one. I was so thrown off by what he was asking us to do that I still don’t know if I understand the point of this exercise and I’m left scrambling to find a way to relate it to something I can use.
I don’t know. My characters have minds of their own and make their own decisions, but relating that to dead people who have left this earth leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Not believing something or putting faith in a different thing doesn’t give me the right to ‘play around’ in someone else’s belief. Speaking to the dead? Yeah, that’s both dangerous in my belief and disrespectful to others.
Maybe I’m being far too sensitive to this or overthinking what could be a simple exercise, but I’ve been taught from a very young age that you don’t make a joke of what people believe. Not if you want them to offer you the same respect for yours.
Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash.
Nikki Bradley 