It can be just a bit freaky when your characters talk to you. Especially when they're quite insistent. But I suppose that's also one of the most interesting things about being a writer.
You know your character doesn't really exist in flesh and blood, in that you can't drop over to their house & have a coffee with them. I can't ask Tash to walk the dog, for example, or get Malia to go down the shop & buy some milk (it'd be really handy if I could...but then again they're teenagers so they'd probably squirm out of it anyway!).
But there comes a time when they do become much more real to you. This time comes for some writers right at the start of a manuscript: they have characters that just out of the blue start talking to them & that's where the story starts.
I began 'talking' to Malia quite some time ago, probably way back in late 2004. But Tash has only recently started to make herself really known to me. She's an interesting girl, and much more complex than I had originally given her credit for. She has lots of secrets and I think only now she is beginning to trust me with them.
Unfortunately, she can start demanding my attention when I can't really give it (like when I'm in a meeting at work). But I think we're working on that. And I know her perspective is really going to make a huge difference to this manuscript. I just have to learn to really listen and let her voice through.
If I can do that, then I'm confident she'll really blow us all away.
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