Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Character coincidence? I think not!

I was talking to my wife earlier tonight about the Penelope book. Basically I explained how writers draw from their experience, embellishing and elaborating what they know. I gave her few examples. Then she asked me about the character Uncle Elmer. Here is brief description of him from the book.

"Uncle Elmer was her father's brother, but they looked nothing alike. While Father stood erect, Uncle Elmer slouched. Father had hair, Uncle Elmer had a few strands combed over a bald pate. Father's face was bold and sharp, Uncle Elmer's mug was soft and squashed."

When she asked me where he came from I couldn't answer. He just came out of my subconscious I guessed, but I kept thinking I'd met him before. Then she said, "He reminds me of my Uncle Bruno." She was right! All this time I had been writing about her uncle and never realized it. Now a quick point: her uncle was not a gangster as was my character, but otherwise I had sized him up pretty good.

Do you have an Uncle  Bruno in your story?

4 comments:

  1. No Uncle Bruno, but I did write a nice story in college. My girlfriend thought that she was the dumped girl in the story, and that this was my way of telling me. So, she dumped me. Bummer! But the story got an "A" in Creative Writing and I caught the eye of another girl in the class.

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  2. You started with a girlfriend. Lost girlfriend. Got an "A" and got new girlfriend...Congratulations! You're ahead.

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  3. My husband keeps sneaking up in mine. I have the two halves of his personality neatly divided into two characters. No wonder I am fighting a love triangle. Ha!

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  4. Does your husband know about his split personality? :o)

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