Today I am delighted to introduce our first ‘The Write Life’ series guest blogger, Rita Stella Galieh. Rita is an inspirational author in every sense, and as you’ll discover below, a writer very in touch with her characters.
I guess one of the most interesting aspects in my writing journey has been the ‘looking inward, digging deep’ phase. Jumping into my character’s persona and having to question myself constantly how I would feel in a particular situation.
Once I’d found myself in my character’s ‘shoes’ I’d really BE there while writing and have found it hard to deal with interruptions. You know, ‘coming back into reality’ again and leave my Kate (that’s the latest gal) dangling. Ugh! My concentration while in the story flow is fairly deep, so I’ve had to explain to my darling to tap me on the shoulder before he starts talking, as I’m not really ignoring him. I’m just not there in the room, in the year, or in the century.
In delving into personality traits, I’ve learned so much about how different we all are in the way we view things, how we react, and a little about why we do things, even when we don’t understand the real reason behind our own actions. All this I can work into my character’s life. Better still, it has made me more understanding whenever someone has acted in a puzzling way toward me.
I also discovered when creating my first novel, Fire in the Rock, I could put a lot of ‘me’ into my character (ah, poor girl) more than what I’d admit to in real life. But in following stories maybe just snippets. Hopefully this makes our novels ring true, would you agree?
Rita Stella Galieh is a scriptwriter /co speaker on a five minute Christian program, Vantage Point, broadcast Australia-wide. She is a historical romance author with two novels published, Fire in the Rock and Signed Sealed Delivered-with two more in the series. As runner–up in the unpublished M/S of the Caleb Awards, she is now polishing Miss Kate’s Great Expectations. A graduate of Emmaus Bible College and the National Arts School, Rita ministers with her husband in Thailand each year at Buddhist high schools, prisons, shopping malls, hospitals, orphanages and churches.
To find out more about Rita and her writing, follow the links below:
And thank you Adele for this opportunity to air a few thoughts.
An absolute pleasure, Rita. Thanks so much for sharing your ‘Write Life’ insights on getting into our characters’ heads, and how this can apply in a broader life perspective. Some great thoughts drawn out here.
I think putting elements of ourselves into characters can definitely help us to write knowledgeably about their feelings and that’s always a good thing. 🙂
Thanks Lynne. And sometimes we can even put a teensy bit of our mean side into our villains!
Hi Rita
Can totally relate to the walking in a character’s shoes scenario – whether fiction or non-fiction writing. I have also been known to be still writing at 3am after starting somewhere around noon the day before and wondered why my head was aching, having not eaten since who knows when and dehydrated to the max except for the consumed caffeine which is all that has kept me awake.
I find myself analyzing my family and friends character traits, wondering why they react in certain ways to what is going on in their lives. There are some quite interesting scenarios that I play out in my head. Love to try to guess where a writer is going with a character while I’m reading a book too.
Great post. Loved it.
Oh, don’t be so had on yourself Lesley! Gotta eat. Too much caffeine & you’ll be twitchy. Hah, analysing your family, eh. Just don’t let them know about that!
Hi Rita and Adele,
Thanks for this thought. Rita, you’ve just mentioned one of the very best aspects of writing fiction, in my opinion 🙂 I love the way you need the tap on the shoulder to drag you back out of your characters’ worlds. I’ve come across scientific studies which prove that fiction readers have more empathy than the general population, and I’m sure it must be even more so for authors.
Well Paula, it’s nice to think we’ve got something going for us, given that we’re considered a strange lot.
Thanks for that insight Rita. I think it does make a novel ring true if the characters have snippets of real life people in their make up, though I guess you’d have to be careful with the villains 🙂 And I love your explanation that you’re not ignoring hubby, you’re just ‘not there in the room, in the year, or in the century’. Classic! I’ll have to use that.
Oh Nola, my darling found that trait a little bit irritating until he realised That’s my author ID taking over!