Two Quotes

Welcome to the New Year! January is a bit of a bleak month, don't you think? No flowers, very little sun, long, dark nights and chilled fingers. I'm convinced that's why we all make New Year's resolutions - to find a reason to be excited about this long, freezing month. In January, I find my writing inspiration in good books, in the words of other writers. I got up at six-thirty this morning and wrote in bed, bleary-eyed through my glasses, to steal a bit of truly quiet time, in the black predawn. I leaned on two quotes.

I feel sure he's talking about life - the things we don't say to the ones we love. But I'm going to stretch that to include the things we say in print, as well. Fictional things, even. Six-thirty is a time for brave writing, when there's no one counting curse words over your shoulder, and there's  no world beyond the black windows. It's a time not for hinting at what you want to get across in your story, but laying it flat-out, unapologetically.

This quote I love. As writers, we have to stay true to our characters' voices, no matter how twisted. They're not us, after all. They aren't even reflections of our subconscious. Characters are manifestations of years' worth of observation and data collection. And we are not responsible for what comes out of their mouths. Making them feel like real people means taking our own voice out of the equation. They have lives, minds, vocabularies of their own. Let them breathe. And don't hold back - let them say what they need to, so there's no regrets.

Cheers to brave writing in the new year.