By D.M. Pulley
My sister always asks
me, “What do you mean you don’t know what will happen next in the story? How
can you not know what the characters will do? You’re the
writer!” Well, let me try to explain.
I do all my writing in a
cushy recliner the sales person called a “snuggler,” which sits in a sunbeam
in my living room, whenever there is sun in Cleveland anyway. I like to huddle
under a warm blanket, grab my laptop, and kick up my feet like I’m about to
watch a movie. Some writers prefer the professional atmosphere of an office,
but my office is reserved for storing the kids' hand-me-downs and piling up
random papers no one wants. After a decade working as an
engineer hunched over a keyboard at a modular desk, I prefer comfort.
Besides, writing is more like going to the movies than a job for me. Even
though there’s hard work involved, most days I sit back, relax, and daydream
the story.
What the heck does that
mean? Well, it takes a good ten minutes of typing to forget the chair, the
living room, my dog, and the feel of my hands on the keyboard. It’s the same
hypnotism that makes you forget a movie exists only on a small screen as it
sucks you in despite a roomful of distractions. It’s the mental shift that
allows you to escape into a really good book and forget you left the oven on
(or that you have kids). This state of reverie lets me tune out everything else
and be inside the character I’m writing, see what he sees, and feel what he
feels. It’s like having a vivid dream or nightmare and watching helplessly as
your imagination runs wild. Don’t go into that room! But there
you are, opening the door.
In this dream-state, the
story just unfolds. Don't get me wrong. At different moments every day I have
to get up off my comfy chair and storm around the set like a Hollywood director
in a scarf and funny hat, clapping my hands impatiently. Something
needs to happen here, people! You. Where are you going? What the heck is your
motivation in this scene? Take an acting class! And can someone please get this
guy a knife? Who’s on props here? No one likes it, props crash to the
ground, and it takes several minutes of loud aimless typing for the actors and
me to settle back down into the story.
Fortunately, most of the
time my characters know what they’re doing. I set the scene, and then sit back
in my snuggler and watch the show. My cast is working without a script, but we
have the characters down and we know where the story is heading--well sort of.
As any director will tell you, some of the best moments come when you give the
actors the freedom to improvise.
_________________________________________________________________
Before becoming a
full-time writer, D.M. Pulley worked as a Professional Engineer, rehabbing
historic structures and conducting forensic investigations of building
failures. Pulley’s structural survey of a vacant building in Cleveland inspired
her debut novel, The Dead Key, the winner of the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel
Award. The disappearance of a family member formed the basis for her second
historical mystery, The Buried Book. Pulley’s third novel, The Unclaimed Victim, delves into the dark history behind Cleveland's Torso Killer. She lives
in northeast Ohio with her husband, her two children, and a dog named Hobo, and
she is hard at work on her fourth book. My social networking links are
below (@DMPulleyAuthor), my website is www.dmpulley.com,
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