Bette Anne

[vaneramos]

This morning I saw Bette Anne at the farmers' market. She was a friend in university, and I bump into her around town once every five years or so. Her wavy brown hair has turned crinkly and frosty. She has a bright-eyed, interesting Dutch face that has taken well to middle age. With her warm, energetic demeanour I suppose she will only grow

Comments

[bitterlawngnome]

I never even thought about it ... did you consider writing it as nonfiction?

[vaneramos]

Yes, but I can't stomach it. Some things are much too personal. For example, my marriage was awful, miserable, an essential part of the drama I went through, but to write about it would violate my ex-wife's privacy, and I have no business doing so. In the novel I create a completely different, fictitious marriage between a gay (or perhaps bisexual) man who is, admittedly, a lot like me, and a woman who is nothing like my ex-wife. I think it is a more interesting marriage than the one I had.

[bitterlawngnome]

Her privacy, yes of course. Not to mention one or two other people ...

[vaneramos]

Another way of putting it-fiction can be much more honest.

[inishglora]

The great thing about discussions like this is that it tends to stir up new ideas and directions that otherwise might not have made themselves known.

[vaneramos]

Yes, that's also the great thing about writing every morning. Even if I don't make daily progress on the actual writing of the novel, I am toying with characters, ideas, narrative voice, etc. Problems that used to seem intractable have a way of working themselves out, characters come alive, and new plot threads suggest themselves.

[eniastoa]

Conversations like that are great, and the Farmer's Market is a great place for them. And writing because nobody else has tackled that yet is almost the best reason for writing.

These two bits leapt out at me:
"My husband and I have friends who tried to stop being gay. It doesn't work. It is not good." -- I can so easily hear that spoken exactly like that!

"Yes, but I couldn't write with bitterness. That would be bad writing."
Bette Anne rolled her eyes in acknowledgment.
-- very true, the narrator's/auctorial voice needs another focal point, but at the same time, the last thing you need is for every character to sound the same. There will be somewhere where bitterness will be natural in dialogue.

[bezigebij]

There will be somewhere where bitterness will be natural in dialogue.

I agree with this. It is okay, and possibly necessary, to acknowledge the bitterness. Allowing it to saturate and dictate the story would be wrong, but the bitterness is part of the experience and this too should be told.

[vaneramos]

I love it when I have the presence of mind to record interesting conversations, because the way people talk is different from how they write. You're right about bitterness; I'm sure it will enter in, but I don't want to write with an axe to grind.