Are You a Clock Watching Therapist to Your Characters?

"I'm sorry, your time is up for today. Let's pick this up next time. "

The bad stereotype of the clock watching therapist/patient relationship would be horrible to experience. To get started on some big issue and have to stop on a dime when time ran out? Yikes!

Hmm, actually, that does seem kind of like my writing process. I'm not the patient in this scenario (debatable, but bear with me!) but the amateur therapist. The characters are the patients.

I have good intentions in my role, but just when I get to the heart of the matter, time's up. I'm not sure who is to blame, but sometimes in this relationship I have warm ups that build to just getting in tune, while at other times the breakthroughs come "out of session" - - guaranteed to be inconvenient. (i.e., In the shower or in the five minutes before I have to stop or be late, late, late.)

My muse (FYI, also a patient) has been progressively pushy lately - - on the brink of discoveries when, in months of "sessions," it didn't whisper a peep to me. I did show up to listen. Okay, sometimes in session I surfed the net or played Bingo, but I showed up. I waited for the heart of the matter (begged and pleaded even) and often all I got was the basics. But, apparently I'm "ON CALL" because, what invariably happens? Out of the blue, things start to fall into place in an avalanche of the heart of the matter breakthroughs.

My conversation with my patient right now goes something like this:

Hold that thought, Mrs. Heroine. I've got a week off from my "day job" coming up and we'll pick things up where we left off. I know, I know...you just figured out your biggest fears. That's big, and I do appreciate that you decided to finally let me in on it. What's that? Yes, I know, it's my fault. I shouldn't have started this new therapy five minutes before the end of the session, but I thought I'd experiment with this first person thing. It opened up the floodgates when I didn't really expect it to work - - you have been awfully stubborn you know - - but, um, can you...how should I put this...put a cork in it for now? You've done it this long, what's a little longer? For now, I really must do this other thing or I'll be...[insert something catastrophic...like, oh, say becoming homeless or something]. So, just hold your place...and pass that on to everyone else too. Okay?

Can it work that way?

Not. *LOL*

But, as melodramtic as it sounds like I make my writing process, it's how I love to be. The things that come to me are not, in fact, out of the blue, but only possible by absorbing experiences. I'd much rather have this problem of being a "clock watching therapist" than never to have heard my patients problems at all.

If, as the author you are the therapist, what would your conversation with your patients be like?

Experimenting with POV

I'd have to say I haven't been too tempted to experiement with POV. I've pretty much been third person all the way. It's what I read most often, after all, and logically what I want to write. True, there has been some "accidental" experimentation with some scary head hopping. This was in the days before anyone told me that was "wrong." Ahh, those were the days. I fondly remember blessed ignorance.

But when I finally got around to accepting why this head hopping actually caused confusion (Really? Huh.), and consequently thought I better pay attention to some rules for my own benefit, various solutions appeared. One solution: write in first person to "lock-in." And, I thought, "good idea," before going my own way with deciding to continue to write in third person, but with one POV. This was my minimalist method. That, and a bit of insecurity that I better learn to walk before I run. Logically, if switching POV is awkward, then minimize the occurance. I didn't have to use first person.

I'm not sure where my ambivalence to first person came from. Oh, I suppose I can guess. It goes back to simply sticking with the familiar and not feeling confident to experiment. Besides, experimenting means work and rewrites, etc. Yeah, that's part of it. Even if I do the method of writing in first person and changing it over to third later, well, that is probably why I haven't tried it!

So, my one character POV method worked...for a while. It made sense, actually, in my WIP with a ghost character, to stay solely in his head for a long time. It's natural (as far my idea of how a ghost would feel) to be an observer and distanced from the other characters, and I did feel "locked-in." Without switching, the reader really gets to know this hero. If I do say so myself, he's really a great guy. *sigh* But what about the heroine? Who is she? By observation, she seems an unlikely match for the hero. Why is she so fragile? Why does he love her? Is she worthy of this wonderful, alpha hero? I needed to get into her head.

Solving this problem seemed to be to write the first chapter in the heroine's POV before the long period spent in the hero's POV. (In the midst of all this, I grudgingly admit that I am, actually, experimenting with POV. Darn it anyway. *grumble* No matter how I try to simplify and walk before I run, things get complicated.) I expect a lot with POV. In one introductory chapter, I have lofty goals (and pressure) to make her so identifiable and sympathetic to the reader that the absence of being in her head for several chapters is missed (much like the hero misses her).

I've tried. And while I think it's the right move, I still don't like my first chapter. The action I like, but it's too separate from the rest and lacking something just outside my grasp. Mostly, I put this frustration on the back burner and keep going, figuring, as is my pattern, I'll revise Chapter One and get better handle on it...eventually.

Then, I had a long break from my WIP. I'm still in that break (i.e., return to college!), but these characters are far from forgotten! And, as sometimes happens with time away, an odd idea is taking shape.

Recently, in my lit class, I read the unfamiliar (i.e., not a romance) style of multiple POVs in first person. All I can say...I was lost. Not totally, but I missed a lot. Worse, I not only missed a lot, but I was simply wrong. And did I ever feel gullible!

My problem: who to believe. For some reason, I took as gospel truth the thoughts of the first person character. It didn't really occur to me that this character was lying to him or herself. Add a multiple first person account (from different characters) of the same event, and I floundered to decide who was telling the truth.

I'm still amazed. Where the heck did this trust come from? After kicking myself for lacking the understanding to grasp literature and my dismal ability to be a discerning reader, I thought, hmmm, so that's why some people write in first person. I'd heard this before about first person, that it can give an impression that the story is true. This kind of went in one ear and out the other. Yeah, yeah, but I get sick of reading "I."

But what about for a short time and mixing first person with third person? Is this something that would help me for my first chapter? Could I then slip back into third, and stay there? And who am I asking permission from anway? *LOL*

One concern, of course, is "romantic conventions." Is this going to be a hard sell? Heck, so is the rest of this paranormal story. :) The only way to find out is to try it. What it comes down to, is if it's a tool that works, use it.

Have you experimented with POV? What are your thoughts of first person or mixing first person with third person POV? What weight do you put on romantic conventions when experimenting?

LINKS:

Here are a couple handy links if considering experiment with POV. The first is a .pdf document of a nice overview of POV in a handout given out by author Susan Lyons at a RWA Conference:

Look Who's Talking.

Also helpful, for considering reasons for mixed use of POV is a blog posting by author Gail Gaymer Martin:

Mixing First Person and Third Person POV in a Novel

Don't Call Me Ma'am...

It's been one of those days. I knew they'd come. Those days when I feel my "age." Afterall, I'm a 40 something returning to college. Even if the university does have a higher percentage than some colleges of older students...still, I knew these days would come.

Today, a simple thing really got me thinking. The professor for World History II, was running late, and while waiting, I listened to the young kids (the traditional freshmen) in the row behind me. They were deep in conversation making fun of the professor. Her weight, her clothes, her demeanor...it was all fair game.

Part of me thought it was mean, but I could see where they were coming from. I'd had some of the same thoughts about this professor. I wasn't concerned about her appearance, but I did find her unsettling. She has a way of putting you on the spot that strikes terror in a student's heart - - it does in my heart! I'd talked on the phone with my sister that I thought she, with her erratic outbursts that seemed to shock the class into paying attention, "wasn't playing with a full deck."

Then, in the midst of these students behind me getting rowdy while one upping each other with clever derogatory comebacks, one of these students dropped his water bottle and, in the auditorium tiered classroom, it rolled down to my row. I picked it up and handed it to him and heard a very polite, "thank you, ma'am."

Ha! There it was. Ma'am. I'd already given myself a lecture not to take offense at this respectful title just because it made me feel old. Now, that's silly, I told myself. I tried to convince myself that maybe it's time I took it as a compliment. But coming on the heels of this overheard conversation, the generation gap hit me. Obviously, I wasn't part of their world. I might be a student, but I was ma'am. The goofing off behind me halted and I had a strange, strange feeling. Had I somehow busted it up? Did I, with my simple interruption done out of politeness, put a damper on their talk? For all I know, they were making gestures about the "old lady" behind my back. Who just might be me.

That makes me grumble to myself at the unfairness. Don't these cool, smart kids know I'm a cool mom who plays with her son in the sandbox and makes snow angels? No, they don't.

And I get a bit of empathy for "the crazy professor." Maybe she has her reasons to shock the living daylights out of her students!

In the next few moments, the professor came in and began taking attentance. "Is George here?" she demanded. George was one of the kids behind me. George, in fact, was the one who'd said...and I quote, "watch out, she'll go all samari warrior on you if you answered a question wrong." When George said, in a respectful tone, "here," she then paused. She looked at George and said, "You weren't in my world religions class this morning. Is it too early for you?"

Maybe she knew she had to crack the whip! *LOL* But in an odd way, I'm not so afraid she will put ME on the spot. Maybe she knows I don't need it. I'm a ma'am afterall. (shhh....she doesn't need to know I called her crazy to my sister!).

So what does any of this have to do with writing a romance novel? A lot actually. It's all made me think that, no matter what our age and position in life, there is probably something we can identify with in nearly any other group outside of our own. I can relate, in some small way, to both the students twenty years my junior and to the professor who strikes fear in my heart.

It's sometimes harder to see in the real world. Often, we feel like we have nothing in common. But it's there. On the outside, we might not see it. But in the written words of a novel we can get beneath the stereotypes and find the common insecurities. I can read a romance novel and identify with a young girl in a historical. I can read a contemporary novel about a professionally successful heroine, and if she has insecurities, I can relate. If there is humor, in anyone's age group, I can relate.

What role do you think age plays when it comes to identifying with characters? Either reading or writing them?