One of the benefits to being a writer is that when life sucks and people disappoint, you can escape into the head of a character of your invention.
I have done just that today, as I crawl to the finish line of the draft of Unkiss Me. I've invented a character who embodies the spiritual contradiction I'm trying to tease out in the conceit: telling a lie in order to tell the truth, versus, telling the truth, but keeping it to yourself in such a way that it amounts to a lie. And, on a related note, releasing your truth, but honing it for a particular audience--even if, as in the case of my characters, the honing is not always a conscious decision.
This minor character has only a handful of posts, and he goes by the blog name Simple Simon. I'm being very generous with this character, using him sparingly, and giving him the conundrums I wrestle with the most--such as this notion of audience and confession--the meta-theme of the book. I've also made him HOT! And, a priest who grew up jerking off to the sound of the consecration.
As a response to one of the final posts in the novel, Simple Simon has this to say. (Though I realize that it wouldn't appear as a post, since it's a comment to a post that I'll post with the other character, so you get the concept. Damn, these rabbit holes...)
Wow, jerking off priests..lol Actually, the only people I know who went to seminaries were man-whores- one particular womanizer was a friend of mine in college who was my friend precisely because I didn't date him. When he told me he was going to Harvard seminary, I couldn't believe it. Crazy catholics..
ReplyDeletep.s. I love your character blogs. Love it, love it.