Thanks for your patience, dear followers--I find it can take longer at the outset of a blot to get into the swing of posting regularly (or what constitutes regular for me). I still want to write some posts introducing my major characters, but first I have a random thought / experience that seemed blogworthy.
Both my main characters write songs, so I'd like to share something odd that happened in a verse my male protagonist, Lorcan, was writing the other day (it might sound strange to say he was writing it when I was actually writing the song, but in the story he writes them, so...well it's complicated).
You know how oftentimes a character or plot arc will have a mind of their own? Sometimes my songs are the same way, and they're often better for it. My initial impulse in writing the first line of this stanza was to end with the word "springtime." However, not one but two other lines had to rhyme both with "spring" and "time," and I usually shy away from using words that are really difficult to rhyme well.
However, Lorcan was quite firm that we were going to use that word, springtime, as the rhyming word. He really deserved the smug little gleam in his eye as he told me so, because he (/inspiration /my muse) came up with a couple other lines I'm quite proud of. Their ending rhymes were "wings climb" and "wind bells with the strings chime."
So the moral of the story--or thematic significance, if you will--is: Listen to your characters. They know what they're doing. Usually.
I have a WIP too and truly, you're right - you should really listen to your characters"
ReplyDeleteEvery time I try to do something that isn't true to my heroine, it never reads realistically.
Also . . . wings climb and wind bells are both rather lovely so your character is quite the poet!