The Muse and His Twin
Writing is strange. Life is strange. Sometimes the strangeness correlates.
I am being more purposeful in organizing for this next book, my new work-in-progress. I really want to scope the whole storyline, characters, settings, interactions, relationships, and world before I even begin writing the story itself. It’s painful. Words keep wanting to take over. However, I know that if I organize ahead of time, the story will write itself much easier. In the past I’ve just written, and then had to contend with rewrite after rewrite after rewrite . . . ad nauseam.
But there is also discovery to be found in the organization of a story.
For one thing, I wanted to get a grasp of what the characters look like. I decided to look for actors and actresses who look like what I want my characters to look like. It helps me to continue visualizing them, to stare into their eyes and pull their story out of them. I’ve been paying attention while watching television and films, and scrolling through imdb for faces that do this for me.
I recently re-watched a movie that I hadn’t seen in a few years and am entranced by its male romantic lead. I love his voice, and I just can’t stop looking at the panes of his face. He has a haunted quality to him that works perfectly for one of the central characters in The Foundling Project.
And here’s where the strangeness of life imitating art, or perhaps the other way around, comes in. My character in The Foundling Project has a secret twin brother. Upon researching the actor who has become my character’s muse, looking for more pictures of his perfect face, guess what I found out?
Yep, he has a twin.
Weird, huh?
Well, anyway, I contacted him on Twitter, just because I could. I sent him a message saying “I hope you don’t mind if I use your face as my muse for a novel I’m writing in 2013.”
The next day my muse, or more likely one of his people, followed me back on Twitter. How’s that for a shot in the arm?
Well, as a shout-out to my new muse, I’ll post a photograph of him and his twin brother . . . hopefully whetting your appetites for a story that incorporates their perfect faces.
Luke and Matt Goss
Here’s hoping you find your muse in 2013.
~Thanks!
Posted on January 3, 2013, in Writing and tagged 2013, actors, art imitates life, drama, entertainment, imdb, life, life imitates art, life is strange, Luke and Matt Goss, Luke Goss, Matt Goss, muse, muses, novels, twin brothers, twitter, writing. Bookmark the permalink. 6 Comments.
Wow, there is so much awesome here. A) That he followed you back (or his marketing team did) and B) that you have the stamina to surf IMDB faces. Whenever those “Next Big Thing” things come around I’m always baffled. I’ve never worked with real images of characters, just images in my head–it’s pretty neat how everyone gets their inspiration from different sources.
So cool to hear how much time you’re spending doing the construction, layout, outline, sketching in advance. My last book project I did this with also (previous projects were not so well outlined or laid out in advance) and BOY did it pan out really well! I’ve never had a book come so fast or so easy! I hope it works out for you. Best of luck.
Also, for some reason “The Muse and His Twin” sounds like a totally awesome book title!
Thanks, and yes, it does sound like a good title. Hmm.
I’ve used the finding faces strategy before. Sometimes just in my head, sometimes I actually copy and paste them into a folder. (That’s not stalking, is it?) I decided to do it this time since I’m trying to use Scrivener, and that program allows you to put pics in if you want to. However, I’m not digging Scrivener much. I don’t find it much more helpful than Word and just making separate documents and saving them to a folder on my ‘puter. But whatever…like you said in your review, it has no timeline feature. So, I’m making my own – as part of my organizational process. I’m hoping that when it comes time to “compile” Scrivener will be worth the $30 I paid for it. (I used an online coupon to get $10 off.)
I’d have been jumping up and down if something like that happened to me. You’re brave for putting yourself out there like that!
Organization is a great (and difficult to come by) tool for writing. I always strive to be organized…strive being the operative word here. It’s really admirable that you’re putting time into developing your characters in advance and trying to suss things out in a thoughtful way. It’s the disorganization that gets a lot of writers when the time comes to revise.
Thanks. And by the way, “suss” is an awesome word. Must use it soon.
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