White Space or thoughts

Have you ever noticed how your friends and family glaze over when your excitement about your

novel gets you talking too much about your story? They may say, “Hazel who?” And we have to

explain she’s a character in our novel. Then they look at us like, “Good heavens. She must think 

her characters are her real friends.”

But if you talk about Myrtle Sue, Clyde, George, or Hazel to your writer friends, they know who

you’re talking about. They know you’ve been working with these folks for gone on a year, 

sometimes more. And the fun thing is we can make these folks to our liking or have revenge on 

someone we’ve met in real life by making them a character no one will like.

When speaking to other writers I have learned many of them were shy in their youth, weren’t in

touch with the “in” group in high school, and tend to be selective as to who their friends are. They 

have said they feel more comfortable with other writers who understand what they go through, 

the pain of getting rejections, the thrill of a sale or struggling with a manuscript. 

Writing can be a lonely job, but it helps when you look at your computer screen and see your 

characters with all their flaws and know they enjoy spending time with you—on the screen. Take 

Myrtle Sue. She has a family who can drive her to despair. I’m sure she enjoys knowing I, too, 

have a family that could drive a saint crazy. Well, she would if she could speak back to me. Right?

And what about that crazy Hazel who thinks she’s still young and the men should take her on dates.

Poor thing. Hmmm. Wonder if Uncle Freddy would enjoy her company. Oh, wait, he’s for real.

I had lunch with some writer friends yesterday. We talked about having to mix our real lives with 

our writing life. Some of us have to get up at 5 or 6 a.m. and head off to work. We come home tired. 

But we have to write or those characters in our books will turn ugly with you for making for them 

sit alone for so long. Geez, I better get back to writing now that my computer is once more up and 

running so I don’t find rotten tomatoes being tossed at me through the computer screen. 

I like to think of us as still having the child in us, no matter what age we are. Remember when you

were a kid and had an imaginary friend, or you talked to your toys, dog or cat? Wait, I still do talk 

to my dogs. And I guess with all those folks running through my head, I still have imaginary friends.

I find it strange when people tell me they have nothing going through their heads. How can you just

have white space in your head? And they don’t dream. I have thoughts running around in my head 

all the time. And I dream a lot. 

I wonder what went through the minds of those who wrote fairy tales. Some are rather—well, 

really strange. How about the one where the king is counting his money, the maid is in the garden 

and a black bird snaps off her nose. He must’ve had really weird dreams. Or the lullaby where 

the branch breaks and the baby falls. Did the baby crying in their house drive them insane until 

they wrote that song to get rid of their stress? After all, they didn’t have computers so they could 

share their thoughts all over the world.

So tell me, do you have white space in your head or thoughts always running around up there

in that skull?