Sunday, October 29, 2006

Barefoot Girl and The Demon

My heroine is naked.

And has been for every scene I’ve written so far. She’s a demon. With wings. It’s not that I haven’t been able to figure out how to dress her. It simply hasn’t been part of my thought processes. For the first third of the book, she’s stripping the hero and having her wicked way with him. She uses sex as a weapon and believe me, her arsenal is well-stocked.

Delving into my junk drawer for a way to dress my heroine, I came across a memory from the other day. I was wearing my turquoise skirt that swings in a fun, flirty and sexy way. I like fun, flirty and sexy. Those three words belong together in my mind. It’s hard for me to say one without the other two. Because I was walking to work, I wore the flat blue shoes instead of the sandals I usually wore. On the twenty minute walk, it occurred to me that despite the way the skirt played around my legs, flirted with my knees, and slid across my bare thighs, it was neither fun, flirty, nor sexy. It was the sandals that made me feel that way.

This realization was quite the shock to someone who prides herself on being Barefoot Girl. Socks, shoes, stockings and boots all feel like torture devices to my bare feet. My toes like to wriggle. Grass tickles, sand burns and mud squishes. There other less enjoyable sensations I’ve experienced as a result of my barefoot status, but they’re part of the package. It’s not all one way or another. Life is a blend of textures, and experiences.

Which leads me back to my heroine. Clothes don’t matter to her. She couldn’t care less what she wears as long as she can hike it up, tug it down or shimmy out of it. More often than not, she doesn’t bother with such impediments. Temperature control is not an issue for a demon. She can manipulate climate and appearances in order to project whatever image she wants. As the book develops she suffers a major identity crisis. Her clothing can illustrate this as she lets go of who she thinks she is and embraces her true self.

If Barefoot Girl can wear fun, flirty, sexy sandals, my heroine can wear clothes.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Junk drawers

A blog is a lot like a junk drawer for a writer. You toss stuff up on the screen that doesn't have a home anywhere else. Stuff that you might need somewhere down the road. Stuff that is incredibly useful but rarely needed. Analogies that shine light into the basement when the bulb burns out. Metaphors and similies that act like batteries for that flashlight. Random thoughts that work like paperclips to hold scenes together. Character traits that stretch or connect conflict and motivation like elastic bands or bits of string.

Like any good junk drawer, a blog needs to be sorted through, or cleared out to make sure the candles didn't melt, the matches didn't get wet or the ideas grow stale. Which is one of the many reasons I've resisted a blog for so long. Just one more procrastination tool/chore that keeps me from writing.

On the other hand, I had a great insight the other day about shoes and characters that I lost because I didn't write it down anywhere.

What's in your junk drawer?