Karen Miller on Sanity
- - August 6th, 2009
For the next two weeks Karen Miller will be guest-posting at the Babel Clash blog. She starts her visit with an answer to the age-old question: are writers sane?
Writers – like actors — have a kink in the brain. It’s a kink that means we are at the same time deeply and intimately involved in the process of being human while standing outside that process watching it happen. It means that we can never truly be at one with our own lives because we can’t ever totally lose ourselves in the unconscious moment. A part of us is always conscious, always watching, analysing, pulling the moment apart so we can put it back together again as fiction.
You can join the conversation here.
Satima Flavell
August 7, 2009
at 11:26 am
That’s a brilliant way of putting it, Karen. Do you think that a spin off from this is the gulf between the creative self and the analytical self? I know that’s a hard one for me, as I’m constantly told that I am “too distant” from my characters.
Karen Miller
August 12, 2009
at 1:11 am
Well, I think when it comes to being close to your characters it’s a case of making sure when you’re writing from their pov you’re inside their skin and head during those scenes. I think you use the distance to help you observe things and learn about people, and then you discard the distance and go in real close for the actual writing part.