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 As runner–up in the unpublished M/S of the Caleb Awards, she is now polishing Miss Kate’s Great Expectations.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:
