Anne on writing. Yes, characters do come to life on the page, the cliche is absolutely the truth.
Lestat was born for me in that way, a character in Interview with the Vampire whom I did not think was all that important. He was born as the bad guy, the bully, the bad vampire who didn't appreciate the hero's sensitivity. Louis was the hero. Louis was me. Louis was the novel. And somehow or other, as one of my friends put it: Louis was drawn vividly in black ink, but Lestat came to life in blazing color.
Lestat was the impetus for the second novel; Lestat became the hero of a series in a way that Louis could never have been the hero. How did I go from being Louis to being Lestat? I like to think it was a process of ever deeper discovery. I can't write about characters I don't fully explore and ultimately love. I move through the world creatively by means of love affairs and obsessions, yielding to my deepest feelings rather than reason.
For another kind of writer, the process might be wholly different.
Read Interview with the Vampire now.
No comments:
Post a Comment