What I want to read...

‘I write what I would like to read – what I think other women would like to read. If what I write makes a woman in the Canadian mountains cry and she writes and tells me about it, especially if she says, ‘I read it to Tom when he came in from work and he cried too’, I feel I have succeeded.’

-George Orwell

There are times I can't seem to find a story or novel that I want to read. It is like being in bed and being unable to sleep and tossing and turning. I can't find the right position or the right dream. Then I start to think of a story and presto, I am thinking of a character and what he or she would do under this or that circumstances. Later, I start to write it. Ah, that is the story that I wanted to read. I feel so satisfied. Those are the people I wanted to meet, and I did.

I get close to my characters and often spend time talking with them. I know what had happened to them before the story began and often what happened to them after. Sometimes, I asked them what they think of this event or that in my life to see how they would react or I ask them why they did this or that and they tell me. I often am surprised by their answers. Sometimes, I like them and sometimes I don't. I can't make them do anything that is not natural for them to do. I have tried to do this many times, and it does not work.

The characters are never boring unless I have taken a wrong turn. If I am bored, then I have to back track and find out where I went wrong. I can't have Mary kill John if Mary did not want to. Some people think that writers are like God and that we have total control over the people in the stories. What most people don't understand is that like human beings in reality, the people in stories seem to have a will of their own and they are quite capable of breaking your heart.

If I am writing a good story, then I am satisfied with what is happening and feel good when it ends. I feel sorry when it does, but I can't make the people go on when there is no reason to unless another story is beginning. As a reader, I do the same. I get to the end of a short story or book and I feel good about it. Ah, as I close the covers. That was good. Time to start something else.