Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Tort Report

I spend the majority of the day talking to myself, to my characters, and to the tortoises (Larry and Mrs. Larry, for those of you just stopping by.)  I'm sure other writers do something similar, and it makes me wonder how much help their pets are to the writing process.     

I check on Larry and Mrs. Larry during the day, and I usually eat lunch in the same room with them.  But sometimes, when I'm stuck on a scene or I'm just not feeling the story, I plop down in the chair nearby and we have a chat.  Same goes for the nights when it's just me giving them their "soak" - that's when I bounce ideas off the little hard-shelled muses.

Let me set the record straight:  I know they're not going to talk back to me.  I know.  I get it.  But when Mrs. Larry cocks her head and shows me one of her intelligent dark eyes, I do wonder if maybe my solution to a writing problem is a pretty good one after all.  Or when Larry blinks lazily at me, I consider that my idea might actually be as boring as it sounded. 

Hmm, maybe I need to get out more...

Anyway, how, if at all, do your pets play into your writing process?  (Please don't tell me I'm alone here with this!)   

2 comments:

  1. Oh, Madeline, you're not alone (and you made me smile with your tort talking)!

    I talk out loud about writing stuff, and when the Beneficent Mr. Hall asks who I'm talking to, I say, "Sally. What's it to you?" (Sally's the crazy dog. Though I suspect that Mr. Hall would say Sally's not the only crazy one around here.)

    I also write ABOUT Sally. She's pretty entertaining, for a Hall. :-)

    P.S. Thanks for the shout out on my essay!

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  2. Ha! I should've named this post, Tort Talk.

    Cathy, my question to you is, does Sally give good writing advice/feedback? And is it better than the Beneficent Mr. Hall's? :)

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