Thursday, July 2, 2009

The give and take, the unknown and the known, the hot and cold, the rise and fall of relationship

I am working on a new book. It is a subjective analysis of dating and relationships from the point of view of 4 different women. Four novellas. Completely separate, yet all connected.
Today as I research each woman and outline characters, I am building relationships with each one. This is always the fun part for me because it is a very emotional connection I have with each character in order to make them believeable. One of the characters gets on my nerves already. She is a typical girl, "why doesn't he love me anymore...what did I do"? I'd love to have interaction with one of my stronger characters, to relay the message, "He has just given you the opportunity to be loved by someone who gives a shit".
I realize in this project, I have a Sybil type commentary going on, and if I could weave that into the storyline, I think I will have overcome my biggest obstacle; getting my point across without making my chracters too typical.
For myself, I spent the same amount of time as most women after a failed relationship wondering, what I could have done differently, or why I was no longer interesting. Until, I heard the same commentary over and over again from every woman I know. This commonality of hurt after some guy is just done.
He moves on to the next best thing, and women wonder what they did.
As an adult, I have about 5 minutes for that conversation, whether in my own head or out of someone else's mouth. When a guy goes from calling 5 times a day, to calling once a week, I don't ask myself, "why"? I know men are built that way. The same things that attract us are the same things that push us away. Men have short attention spans.
It is challenging to write for both types of characters as my kneejerk reaction is to run. Some of these characters(well most) don't do that, they wait, and they ponder and they question everything about themselves until their self-esteems are whittled away to nothing.
I am having trouble with this character, so I'm going to try to make it fun. Kind of an opposites game. If Summer would change her number and meet 10 new men this week, what would Autumn do? If Summer would throw a divorce party in Bali, what would Autumn do?
If Summer would move to Australia for the summer determined to find the fling of her career, what would Autumn do?
OK, I'm on a roll now.

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