I don't think writers often think of themselves as thesbians. I certainly never related the two until I caught myself one day literally acting out a scene I was writing. I was speaking the lines outloud, making the same facial expressions and gestures as my characters, and at one point, crying just when my character needed that emotional release. So truth? In order to really feel what your characters feel, you have to put yourself in their places. You have to feel what they feel as you filter those feelings into the scenes you are writing. My husband and kids think I'm a lunatic for putting on my one-woman show every time I sit down to write. And maybe I do belong, at times, on the stage of an Improvisational Theater. But we do what we have to to get that depth of emotion and character into each piece. And who knows, maybe one day, I'll see all my theatrical efforts played out as one of my books-turned-movie up on the big screen ;)
Did you check out the Edward Albee "Masterclass" episode on HBO? I think it's a series of programs where young kids get to sit down with masters of the various arts and talk to them. Being a playwright, he said that he had to be able to hear what they were going to say and in what way (cadence?) they were going to say it before he ever wrote anything down. It was a particularly enjoyable program to watch. And he's so full of himself. Maybe all writers are really just full of themselves, and the more successful they are, the more full of themselves they are. My favorite line from the whole program was when he said, "If you would like to know anything about African art, just ask me." It didn't have anything to do with what they were talking about, but he had all of this African art on display and he wanted to be asked about it. Whatever. But an interesting program.
ReplyDeleteHey Heather. I think the big thing with dialogue is to make it real, rather than just a mental kind of dialogue. It's really easy to hold a conversation in one's head, but it doesn't follow logic all the time, because it only takes into account the feelings of the person imagining the dialogue. I'm interested in the way people really talk, which is about their feelings, in reaction to the previous line. So acting it out makes sense. Even if I never joined the thespian club in high school. I mean, getting up in front of people? Holy crap.
ReplyDeleteOh wait. I *was* in that club. Mind like a steel sieve. :-)