The Voices. #Writing Under the Influence.

You know which voices I speak of, don’t you? The character voices. And they’re causing me serious problems.

I get my sequel’s Act I notes back from Charissa (you only wish you had a cp this awesome) and find myself confronted with notes that say, “This is not something Emma would say.”

A couple years ago, I might have raised my fists in the air and cried, “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT??”

Instead, I gave myself a bit of a headache when my head hit the desk.

There may have been some groaning.

This is something I’m going to struggle with until the novel is complete. Either I am right on the money with Emma and her overall arc, or I’m doing as I fear and getting influenced by another character’s voice.

I just don’t know. I have an argument to this critique, but obviously I have to take her thoughts into consideration. Reacting does nobody any good, especially in the draft stage. And I know damn good and well I’m project jumping like a boss and could be reacting as another character.

#WriterFail

Then again, every cp gave me this identical critique about Emma during the initial stages of Archetype. I don’t know what it is about her, but I’ve never had anyone question me on a character’s reaction or use of a phrase. It was huge for all of them when Emma dropped a curse bomb, and not in the way I intended, which was to add impact to her current emotion. Every single one of them came back with, “Emma wouldn’t say that.”

(You should know I didn’t change a thing. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut. It’s your character, not theirs.)

This shiz stresses me out, yo! I’m already avoiding other books like the plague and reading pieces of Archetype to get the feel of her. Hell if I’m gonna pick up any of my other projects any time soon, either!

Other than that, I’m at a loss as to what to do. Guess I’ll just keep going and pull a Scarlett O’Hara and worry about it tomorrow.

Sigh.