I’ve been writing for seventeen years. Coming up with characters and stories for longer than that. I have learned that characters have very little respect for personal space, time, prior obligations, or anything else relating to living life in the real world. It’s not their world after all, so I suppose I really shouldn’t be surprised at their lack of consideration. Usually they like to pop up at inopportune times like when I’m studying for finals or paying attention in meetings. But today–today I had a character come to me at the most inopportune moment. While I was sitting with my pants around my knees, answering the call of nature.
Seriously? In the bathroom? Is no place sacred?
I hate it when friends or coworkers talk to me in the bathroom. And here some character comes and starts whispering in my ear. Um, hello? Busy!
But it turns out that she was hiding out in a bathroom stall herself. I guess she was bored. Or maybe lonely. She hasn’t told me yet why she’s hiding in a bathroom stall or what she’s waiting for. But she’s finally consented to tell me her name and that she’s a teenager. So that’s a start.
What’s the strangest place you ever received a call from a character?
4 thoughts on “Is No Place Sacred?”
I get them everywhere – ball games, shopping, the shower, etc. I’m just glad they show up and speak up! Hiding in a bathroom stall, eh? Her idea or someone else’s, I wonder? You’ll have to keep us updated!
I kid you not, but during sex. It was highly distracting and not the best night of my life. No afterglow for me. After that it was all about getting the chatty character to give me the info she wanted to share and then leave me a lone. My husband was not appreciative. 🙂
I had a serial killer villain do that to me once. He started telling me about where and how he was going to dispose of the fourth body. It was a real mood killer…
I get ’em whenever pen & paper aren’t handy: shower, bathroom, driving, on the phone at work, elbow-deep in blood from cutting up tonight’s casserole. But sometimes they just won’t fully emerge.
Worst was a MC for a novel. Could NOT get a handle on this slippery character, except I knew she was young. Finally resorted to a meditation where I imagined a locked chest stored in an attic with her inside. Once it was super-clear in my mind, opened the box and let her out. Turns out she was feisty, smart and really really p**ed off. Who’da thunk?
Haven’t yet had the sex-invader. I keep pen & paper by the bed, maybe that’s why… 😉