I bet the average book reader wonders if authors sit around and pontificate upon the motives and back stories of their characters. The answer is, yes… they do.
To make someone like Carpenter believable, he’s got to have back story. Much of the back story of your character never makes it to the books.
Like, Carpenter tried playing chess once and got completely wiped out by someone who wasn’t very literate, and described himself as a Texas redneck. And the humiliation of being beaten so badly made Carpenter never want to play chess again.
That will probably never make it to the books.
And of course, every one of my characters in some point in their lives has had the flu. Why? Almost everyone gets the flu. I’ve only met one or two people who can say they’ve never been sick.
But of course, there’s absolutely no reason to put that in the books. I suppose I could work that in, but who would care?
Recently I read some advice that I should have 5 writer friends. That would be a miracle, because I seem to have had a hundred acquaintances in my life, but precious few friends. The only real friends I have are of course my wife, and a guy I used to work with.
Sinus headaches are terrible. I’m sitting here rambling. It reminds me of the most horrible book I ever read in my life in school, Catcher in the Rye, where the hero character rambles and digresses for 400 pages.
Horrible book. Hated every word of it.
School made me read 1984. I read it, and tore out every page, one by one, and burned it. When they asked me where my book was, I told him, “I burned it. Page by page.” The teacher made me write that out as a book report, and I got an A on the class.
What I need right now is sinus meds.
Rambling!
