When Imaginary Characters Come Alive

You know your writing is going well when someone else talks about your characters as if they are alive!

That's what happened last weekend when I met up with Raphaella -- the young writer I am mentoring as part of a special Quebec Writers' Federation Project.

Rapahella is working on a book project, and if you look carefully at today's pic, you'll notice the names of some of her characters such as Owen and Parker. If anyone was listening to my conversation with Raphaella on Saturday when we met up at a coffee shop in Laval (which is when I wrote the notes that I photographed for today's pic), they'd definitely have thought that Owen and Parker were real people. That's because we were talking about what makes these two boys tick, what their relationship is like, and whether Parker ever gets fed up with Owen. At one point in our meeting, I told Raphaella that it felt to me as if we were discussing flesh and blood people -- and that, for me, is a sign that a story is really working!

This is my second blog entry about Raphaella. The last time I told you about her and the work we are doing together, I explained how impressed I was that Raphaella is so open to comments and suggestions. Some young writers are less open to input. I had the same positive impression of Raphaella when we got together on Saturday. Lucky me!

I'll finish up today's blog entry by sharing something Raphaella told me when I asked her why she enjoys writing. She said, "I'm not expressive orally, but the writing pours out. I've always had trouble saying it out loud." How wonderful, I thought, to have the writing pour out! Hopefully, in the not-too-distant future, you'll get to read about Owen and Parker too -- and find them as real as I do!