I wrote my first serious novel, Abigail Cottage, way back in my twenties, when computers were unheard of and electric typewriters were highly prized lol It was so dark, with characters that you love to hate and hate to love, is bordered on the macabre side lol The trouble is, I have never been able to recreate the atmosphere of that book. Maybe because there was no happy endings in my life at the time, who knows.
I believe our emotions are reflected back at us in our writing. Today my novels are romances or comedies. My life is in balance and that reflects back into my characters. But the problem is, Abigail cottage needs a sequel, so how do I get back into that dark imagination?I often think what on earth rattles around in authors heads when they write horrors? I can hardly bear to watch films like that never mind read books. What dark place, if there is one, do they imagine for themselves, to create these wonderful, but scary characters? I’d like to delve into the mind of a horror writer, but to be frank; I’m worried what I would find lol
Anyway, I digress. Abigail Cottage is about a demon who desperately wants to live a mortal life, but he can’t. His sins, when he was alive, have caught up with him in death and made him a hideous wreck of a creature. He can transform into the handsome man he was, but it’s hard to pretend that you are something you are not all of the time, and throughout the story his disguise begins to slip. W
Which brings me to this thought. How many of us try to be who we are not? For example, we put up with people treating us badly, so we do not upset the proverbial apple card so to speak, we bite back harsh words, because we know if they burst forth, the problem will escalate. BUT, doesn’t this just bottle up the emotions we feel? Instead of releasing the pressure valve, are we not instead building up pressure for it to explode? Do you think it is better thing to speak your mind, regardless of the consequences?
Abigail Cottage is a minefield of different emotions. The bitter feeling of betrayal, the unrequited love, the pain that love brings with it, all encapsulated in a dark world that is desperately seeking the light.
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I'm afraid I'm in the same place you are. I used to write darker fiction, but lately, I'm edging toward romance. My so-called villains are generally not very evil. Even my vampires kill kindly.
ReplyDeleteIn the new novel I'm writing, it would make sense to make the antagonist far more evil, but I'm reluctant to inhabit that kind of character. So, I'm going to see what others here have to say about how they do it.
You might be hitting on something here though--we do repress very much of our feelings in order to get along in the world. Maybe starting out by exploring that in a character could lead to the extremes someone might take if repressed too much. I don't know--do we hold back in our writing by not wanting to explore that side?
Abigail Cottage and your character in it sound fascinating.
Right now I'm into the dark side, my evildoers are as evil as I can make them, lots of blood and gore - lol.
ReplyDeleteI think many of us put on different faces for different places and people. We have a core group where we can totally be ourselves, but to the rest of the world we show them parts that are appropriate. I know I have to bite my tongue about my thoughts when I am at work- or in certain family gatherings.
ReplyDelete~Jess