Eek! I’m Becoming My Characters!!!

I used to have bone-straight hair. Really! I’d curl it with every kind of apparatus available to vain young women, but the hair just wanted to point down like it had weights attached to the ends.

What happened? First Chris, then Tiffany—my characters—that’s what.

I don’t know about you, but when I write people I find myself making their faces, striking their poses and musing their thoughts as they flow through my fingers to the page. This is particularly disconcerting when I take on the characteristics of those least like me. In fact, I have a tendency to carry those traits throughout the day—as if I needed to be with them more to get to know them better.

When I started writing Chris (see his inspiration on my Pinterest page), a southern-rock musician with shoulder-length, wavy, blond hair, I began to push my hand in my back pocket and dress a little differently. I had been used to wearing yoga pants, but now my style is what my daughter calls “rock-n-roll Mom.” My husband even wondered about the funny little crooked smile I seemed to develop. I knew it was Chris’s, but I wondered if I should tell him that. My hair took on waves.

Then I started book two and Tiffany was the one I least resembled—exotically beautiful, wears tight, above-knee skirts, and is something of a flirt (see her inspiration on my Pinterest page). Okay, I haven’t yet become exotically beautiful, and I wouldn’t be caught dead in a short skirt—I don’t have the knees for it. However, I have developed a few of her traits. My once, introverted self, gave way to a social, people needing addict. No, I don’t flirt—except with my hubby—but I did catch myself winking at some guy once.

Yikes! Rein it in Tiffany!!!

All of this happened so slowly I didn’t recognize it until the day I noticed my hair was no longer straight. Not only did I develop Chris’s waves on the top, I acquired Tiffany’s spiral curls below. Really! Check it out:

 

So be careful as you create these wonderful beings. They might just rub off on you.

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Connie is a 2012 Genesis semi-finalist for Women’s Fiction. She was awarded an Honorable Mention in the Winter 2012 WOW Flash Fiction Contest for her entry, Why Not to Kiss on a Park Bench (aka. Harold and Violet). Come visit her on one of her other blogs:

 

Living the Body of Christ

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