Does anyone else secretly grin when they admit they are a blogger? Doesn’t it sound like we should be strapping on work boots, sporting red flannel beneath our denim overalls and hoisting axes over our shoulders while we head high into the timbers? Anyone know any good lumberjack songs?
Hmmm. Me either. I’ll have to ask my husband. Men know these things.
Okay. Just another weird observation. As you might have guessed, I have a lot of these. Most authors will admit to having voices in their heads. To a writer, this is a good thing. It means your characters are doing their appointed jobs and leading you down that long and winding path to the end of your manuscript. This is a normal, even welcoming experience. Needless to say, the voices that occupy my mind tend to sound like Lucy and Ethel, or Martin and Lewis. And on days when I’ve had too much caffeine, I have The Three Stooges performing in full regalia. I can only imagine what a cat scan of my brain would look like. (grin)
Romantic comedies have always relied on slapstick or physical comedy. Not cover to cover craziness but just enough hurled at your hero and heroine to get them into and out of a sticky situation. Good comedy is a mixture of subtle and the not-so-subtle because no matter what, you never want to make it easy for your characters. If you think about it, writing a scene is like building a house of cards. The comedic tension increases as the scene grows on the pages of your manuscript. And you, as the lucky writer, get to decide when to knock it down.
So romantic comedy writers rejoice. Sing your lumberjack songs. Build your house of cards. As long as our characters keep tap dancing in our heads, we'll keep slipping them banana peels.
Hugs,
Reese
A Fond Farewell
5 years ago
18 comments:
Very good mommy! You let me know when you schedule that cat scan, I think I would be very interested in seeing how your crazy mind works! Just remember the queece-duece! Love you!
Like mother like daughter. Your day is coming! Can't wait to see you and Jax. XOXO
The only lumberjack song I know is the one from the Monty Python rountine where the Mountie sings, "He's a lumberjack, and he's okay." So I guess it would work in this case. :-)
I love to listen to you talk about your writing process. The Three Stooges! What a hoot!
I loved the cat scan thing, too. I saw an interview with Anne Rice. She said every spring she starts thinking she's going crazy because she has a brain tumor, so her doctor does a cat scan just to pacify her. It always turns out normal, but some wag in her marketing department took a copy of one of the scans and put it on a tee shirt, so people can see what Anne Rice's brain looks like. They sell like hotcakes.
As I've said before, comedy is not my forte. Our friend SVD, says I do comedy just fine, it's just not the usual brand, but I still sweat it. May be I need to listen to your advice and lighten up. Grin a little and do some tap dancing. ;-P
At least if I get into a funny situation in my writing, I can look to you for advice. ;-)
April 25, 2009 11:55 AM
Actually, Anne Rice is crazy. But with writers, it's acceptable. ;)
Reese, I see everything posted as it should have. As usual, I'm LOL-ing out loud at what you have to say. I wish I had half the mastery of words that you do. I think I used to, but--- Never mind.
There's nothing wrong with your mastery, Rox. You do a great job. After all, you won three out of four in the Hook contest. :-)
You handle characters and situations very well. Your approach shows a good feel for the emotions that are the elemental stock in trade for writing romance.
You, Pat and Starla always amaze me with your creativity and productivity. You ladies are a real inspiration to quit making excuses and bichok. And I bet I'll be adding Reese to that list soon! :-)
I've heard that when people hear voices in their head they are in trouble mentally. Ha Ha Now I know that they are just writing ther next book and trying to do a hundred other things at once. I like it. Love you!
Jeannie & Rox, I'm in awe of your talent. Both of you. Maybe some day the people in my head can have the people in your head over for dinner. Talk about a real meeting of the minds. (eg)
Leola, great to see you here!! And you thought I was crazy all these years! Who knew I had a reason? Okay, knowing where I came from do you think I got it from my dad or my mom's side? (grin) XOXO
Thank you, Jeannie and Reese. You make me feel good. :) And I meant what I said about everyone's comments on the entries being great. That's the kind of thing all of us need to write the best story we can.
So what we're talking about is Author Voice. (What a great topic for May!) Now we have voices in our heads and our own "author" voices merging together. It's a wonder we're all not locked away somewhere! (Some days that would be a blessing.)
I've lost count of how many times my characters weren't speaking...to me, to each other, even to themselves. And then, boom, I'll go to bed and they start talking to each other. Sometimes a character will start telling me things about themselves. Either way, I have to get out of bed, go to the computer, and start typing. If I don't, I'll lose 99% of it, and they always refuse my requests for do-overs. I've been crazy for most of my life, I guess, because there have always been conversations going on in my head for as far back as I can remember.
The mental dinner party, complete with characters sounds great! Bring on the men in white jackets. Dinner jackets, that is. ::grin""
Reese,
This piece was very well written and I really enjoyed reading it. I even learned a few things … like, maybe I wasn’t so safe sharing a hotel room with you after all… just kidding.
I enjoy the tidbits of instruction on the craft of romantic comedy you offer the novice while discussing what the seasoned authors must already know; it’s a refreshing way to learn something new. Thanks Reese… keep it up, I for one love it.
Dina Preuss
Resse
Since Deb and I are the your critique partners, does that make us the Three Stooges?
Sincerely, sometimes I think about one of your lines days even weeks after I've heard it and I'll find myself laughing all over again.
When they make one of your books into an audio book the streets will never be safe again. Police at every fender bender in the country will be hearing the same excuse. "No officer, I wasn't on my cell phone. I was listening to a Reese Mobley story and I couldn't stop laughing.
Pat
Dina, always good to see you here! We might not have been safe, but boy did we have fun at that writing conference. lol I'll never forget the laughter. Can't wait to read your first book when it gets published. XOXO
You know, you just might have something there. We very well could be the Stooges--although I'd like to think we look more like Lucy and Ethel. I actually think the things that happen to us in real life are as funny as any fiction we could write. (Ding-Ding, Ants, lint rollers, Baptist bathrooms and twin stories, just to name a few) Hopefully, it'll be a long time before we write the last chapter on OUR comedy routine.
Thanks for the great blog. It's nice to know that I'm in good company, even if we are all a little bit crazy! Why is it that "they" wait until you are ready to sleep to start yakking away? Roxann is much more devoted than I am. I just scribble a few notes by flashlight because I'm too lazy to get out of bed and then hope they make sense in the cold light of day.G! I must say the vision of lumberjacks has never entered my brain in association with blogging. I usually think of the old horror movie "The Blob", and get feelings of imminent absorbtion if I don't put something mildly intelligent in the little box!
Hmmm, Becky. Red flannel hunks or shapeless creatures. Girl, you need to spend more time with the WARA gals. We'll fix what ails you. lol.
Like Rox, I have to get up in the middle of the night and write or I forget. Besides, hubby doesn't appreciate being awakened in the dead of night by a flashlight because I'm thinking about another hero--even if he is fictional. Can't understand why he doesn't get it. (grin)
There are reasons why Rox doesn't simply flip on a flashlight and make notes in bed. First, with grandkids in the house daily, there's never a flashlight to be found. And if by some miracle I find one, it's usually been dismantled or is without batteries.
Now, I could flip on the reading light and have done that, only to discover that my pen and the pad of paper placed with it have disappeared. That's after I find my glasses, which I may have left on my desk and Mocha, the youngest of the kitties, has knocked on the floor. And I can't find my glasses without my, um, glasses, so.... ::grin::
Then there's the fact that I can't read my own handwriting. And to think I used to write stories in longhand! I keep running across stacks of legal pads from some of those first books. Back "in the day", it wasn't easy to get to the 'puter when the need to write hit. Life has changed since then, which is good because I'd never be able to decipher what I wrote! Even if I could, it would still get put in the computer eventually, so maybe I'm just saving time? Now that would be something from the Queen of Proscrastination!
Voices in my head used to worry me a lot. Even more troublesome was their willfullness if their story didn't go the way they wanted it. I love the "house of cards"--too true.
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