Sometimes, it’s fun to misbehave…

In real life, I am extremely well-behaved. I work hard, I say thank-you when people hold the door for me, I try to be kind to all creatures. But I have to admit that being extremely well-behaved is not that much fun. For one thing, it takes effort. Instead of squashing the spider I found crawling up our bathroom wall last night, I had to grab a Kleenex, gather up the spider, and release him on the back balcony. See what I mean about effort?
So how, you might ask, does a well-behaved lady like me get to let loose once in a while?
Here’s my trick: I often write about rotten kids — kids who, for instance, squash spiders, cheat on tests and torment other kids on, for example, the school bus. So while I’m writing some of my stories, I get a break from my well-behaved self and get to act rotten. It’s fun — and liberating — and since I’m 47, the principal can’t haul me into his office and give me a detention!!
Though what I just wrote is true, I’m trying to make a serious point: one of the satisfactions of writing fiction is that you get TO BE someone else. (I just happen to like being a teenage delinquent, usually a boy!!) I could even take this point a little further and tell you I think that one of the purposes of fiction is that it takes us out of ourselves, and lets us feel what it’s like to be someone else.
I haven’t told you yet about this other Orca project I’m working on — it’s a work of historical fiction based on the story of what happened to my mom when she was in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. To write the book, I had to interview my mom, who is almost 80 and had never before talked about her experiences during the war. The interviewing part was tough because so much of what my mom told me broke my heart. But the writing turned out to be easier than I expected — and I think that’s because I got to BE HER. All this to say — I really believe it’s important and useful to try BEING someone else. This goes not just for writing, but for life, too. It’s a way to help us understand people better.
P.S.: I thought today’s blog entry was only going to be about how fiction writers like me sometimes get to misbehave through our characters, but it turned into a more serious discussion. See — that’s an example of another cool thing that happens when you write — you never know where you’ll end up.
Here’s to making interesting discoveries on the page!