M is for Madness. Moments of Madness. Those crazy
feelings that every writer undergoes. Those weird feelings that creep up on us,
taking us unaware and making us do all kinds of stupid things just to get into
the skin of the character.
A writer I admire said in an interview that as the
protagonist in her book was an old man who suffered from a dry cough, she would
cough in front of the mirror just to hear the sound of that cough and see how her throat feels after the dry cough, so
that she could describe it authentically. She said that she must have coughed 100 times. If
that is not a Moment of Madness, then what is?
I have my moments of madness. I start several
projects with weird characters and then after a few days when the madness
subsides I have deserted the project for my faithful companion: the current
WIP.
Have you ever tried any such thing all for the sake
of getting into the skin of the character?
Note: this is my post for the A to Z
Challenge. My theme is Emotions and Feelings writers experience.
