I haz a Feel...now, how do I uze it?
When I read or watch fiction, I found of late that try to do so in a slightly detached way. I can’t completely detach from it, because that would ruin what I am trying to accomplish. I analyze what makes me react. What is happening to the character(s) that is making me feel, whatever I am feeling.
I’m not going to lie, it isn’t easy. I like to fall into stories. I want them to engulf me, wrap around me, like a comfortable blanket of escape. When that happens it becomes all emotions and excitement. Again, this is not what I am trying to accomplish. Because I want to, eventually, write there needs to be clinical detachment. I need to be able to point out what made me feel like what, and why.
The goal for me is to find a middle ground between total immersion and clinical detachment. “That action made me happy,” Why? Where was the build up? The doubt? What was the Conflict? What was it about ‘that’ specific ‘action,’ ‘plot thread,’ ‘bit of dialouge’ that filled me with whatever it filled me with. Can I reproduce it? Obviously, I don’t want to do this word for word, but I want to take the feeling out of what I am reading/watching, and put it into something I am writing. I’m not talking about theft, mind you. You can’t steal a feeling. But can I pluck the heart strings of other people, the way mine were just plucked.
Whether it be that feeling of isolation that a good horror novel can portray, or the feeling of elation when two lovers kiss on page for the first time, or let’s consider the feeling of high adventure that Hemmingway and Miyazaki inspire by bleeding on page and animation cell. Can I take that from them, and put that in something I create? I don’t know, but damn if I am not going to try my hardest to.
Right now I am working on a story of betrayal, betrayal of love, betrayal of faith, and loss of innocence. It’s a short. I was hoping to have the first draft finished by now, but that didn’t happen. I also have a drabble that I have to have up on 20SD by the end of the month, so I feel the tiger closing in on me. No time for procrastination, but that is probably a good thing.
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