Have you ever had a day when you felt like Alice?
I had an Alice moment yesterday when everything turned into nonsense. Of course, I was writing at the time that my cell phone rang. It takes me a while to reconnect with real life, so the fact I was writing didn’t help.
The call was from an art studio. Their art teachers had switched days for teaching classes, due to personal conflicts. Would my daughter want to change to Tuesdays to stay with the same art teacher?
My mind whirled. What?
“My daughter took art from you two years ago, but she’s not taking now,” I said, still really inside my manuscript, but attempting to communicate.
“Your daughter is Charlotte.” This in a very matter-of-fact voice.
“No, no. She’s not Charlotte.”
“We have Charlotte down.” The soothing tone of the caller seemed to indicate a general lack of confidence in my sanity.
“We’re in a suburb of Charlotte, the town. No daughters named Charlotte.”
“But your last name is Gregg.”
“Noooo.” She was so certain-sounding that I nearly hesitated on this very basic information. “No….it’s Craig.”
“So,” (she’s now somewhat impatient), ” is Tuesday good for you?”
Arghhhh!
At this point I could only start from the beginning. My daughter had taken art classes from them a couple of years ago. She was no longer taking art, she was taking drama. She is not Charlotte. I’m not Gregg. But then there was the matter of our automatic draft for the class 2 years ago. Were they—God forbid—drafting our account to pay for little Charlotte Gregg’s classes? I never could get a good answer from the rather confused artist on the phone with me, so I’ll have to pick through my account. Sigh.
It got me to thinking about my sleuths. They’re falling over dead bodies all the time. Don’t they feel like they’ve stepped through the looking glass, too?
Mine seem to take it in their stride. They’re concerned. They may even be a little shaken. But they don’t seem nearly as confused as I was yesterday. And they had something much more complicated to digest.
If we have conflict in our book (and by-golly, we should have conflict in our book or the poor manuscript won’t ever leave the nest), then our characters are dealing with big, baffling issues: whether it’s murder, divorce, Alzheimer’s disease, or Armageddon. Are we showing their state of mind? Are they reacting? Can they react or are they too stunned?
Our characters have walked through the looking glass. Their lives are turning upside down. Are we capturing that? Because I’m thinking that maybe my characters are way too blasé about their challenges. Maybe some extra internal turmoil will help to spice things up a bit.
_______________________________
And now….well, y’all—I’m somewhere else today! :) Yes, I’m the Traveling Elizabeth this week. If you want to check in with me today (and this might be more of a genre-specific thingy, so y’all non-mystery writers are certainly excused), I’m over at Cozy Murder Mysteries today, explaining why I love writing mysteries.
I’ve had moments like that, too, Elizabeth, where I feel like I’ve stepped through the looking glass. I think sleuths often do, too. I know Hercule Poirot has one of those moments in The Hollow (AKA Murder After Hours, when he goes to lunch at country home near his own country cottage. When he gets there, he sees…an artistically arranged body that he thinks is for his amusement – looking glass time! It’s a real murder in this idyllic setting… Thanks for making me think of that.
…and I want to hear the end of the story, too!
But what happened?? I want the end of the story!
If being in the Zone doesn’t qualify as a time to let the call roll over to voice mail, I don’t know what does. :-)
Suzanne Adair
http://www.suzanneadair.com
Funny story! Sounds like that lady has been inhaling too many paint fumes.
Yes, I imagine finding dead bodies might be a bit disconcerting in real life.
I’m having quite a few “alice” moments, since I’m still jet-lagged. I,too,have a hard time letting the phone ring,just too curious to know who’s calling. I love how you take your everyday life incidents and turn them into writing lessons.
karen
Ruthanne–I need to find out the end of the story, too! :) I was so bewildered by their call that I took my 40% off coupon and went to the bookstore and bought a book. Calming! But today I’ve got to call them back–after I’ve got ALL my facts together (like my name and the fact that unless my 8 year old is driving my car, she’s NOT in their art class!) I’ll call them after lunch, I think.
Margot–That was a *wonderful* book. I’d forgotten about it. You’re right–Christie did Poirot’s response SO well to this baffling and upsetting situation for him.
Haha! This is awesome! And another reason why we creative types shouldn’t do math. :0) Thanks for making me laugh!
Hi Suzanne!
You’re SO right. That’s what I should have done. It’s just that I don’t usually get calls on my cell phone from numbers I don’t recognize and the mystery writer in me was intrigued… :)
Yes, it seems to me that I’ve fallen through the rabbit hole and have been here only for the last four years.
Have gotten used to it though. The daily dose of bizarre does not flummox me anymore. I welcome it, heh!
That’s why my writing blog has the name it does.
As I say there, I find everyday to be curiouser and curiouser.
And, yes, end of story please!
Two right-brains dealing with a left-brain problem. Should be easy to use this kind of thing with characters. Maybe I’ll give it a try. Good luck getting it straightened out. If Mr. Left Brain lives with you, perhaps it could go to the top of his list.
My husband had a similar thing happen to him yesterday. Someone left him a voice mail saying that he needed to send lunch money so the kids could eat hot lunch, however, they weren’t our kids!
Your post made me smile. I’ve had those moments, too – when I begin to think I’m getting the answers all wrong even though they may be basic questions like my name or how I feel. I think I unintentionally pass along some of these insecure moments to my characters.
Now, I can’t resist – I’m off to Cozy Murder Mysteries.
Don’t you just love it when the person on the other end of the phone starts telling YOU about YOUR life?? Especially when THEY have it ALL wrong!! HA! :)
Oh, I’d rather take a beating with a rubber hose than to deal with any kind of customer service people. Look on the good side…she spoke English as a native language—a biggie, though it didn’t seem to help. She couldn’t automatically charge your credit card. (I found out recently…for Chase anyway…that once you give someone permission to charge, even a dollar, Chase can’t prevent them from charging again and again–in any amount. Makes no sense. They also can change their company name, and charge your card. But, I’m wandering and hi-jacking the thread. Sorry.) Lastly, that will hopefully be the last time you’ll have to deal with the issue.
Not much to smile about, but, we gotta find the breaks in the overcast, right?
Best Regards, Galen
Imagineering Fiction Blog
Good lord you get around. Sure that looking glass isn’t a time/slipspace worm hole that transports you all over Bloggydom?
The Old Silly
I’ve had a similar experience. I was at a government office registering something and the agent was filling out the form. She asked for my last name. I told her. She looked puzzled so I spelt it out. She looked even more puzzled and asked “Are you SURE?” I was actually a bit shaken, but assured her that yes, I did know how to spell my surname. Geesh!
Elspeth
Oh Elizabeth that is so funny – on this end! I can only imagine the frustration for you though!
As Galen said, at least this person spoke English! Dealing with some of these people on the phone who live in America, and I can’t understand a word they’re saying, drives me nuts!
And I agree with Karen. You have a wonderful talent of taking an ordinary (?) incident from your normal (?) day and relating it to writing.
What a crazy phone call. And I can see how it threw you off. You’re right about re-examining our characters reactions to the bizarre. I think those who write cozies are more likely to show the protagonist as discombobulated than are those who write mysteries where the protagonist is supposed to be more “professional.” But in either case, you’d think finding a dead body would be anything but normal.
Helen
Straight From Hel
Jane–My characters don’t seem so insecure. But I think after yesterday’s episode that I’m going to inject them with a bit. They need to be in la-la land just as much as I am.
Carol–It was most disturbing! And kind of nightmarish. I even had to go to a bookstore to recuperate…
Alan–Actually, I wondered if there might be some cannabis associated with the person on the phone. Or, since I’m using a Lewis Carroll analogy today, mushrooms?
Galen–This one is an automatic checking account draft. Bleh. Wonder if the same rules apply? B/c it’s really sort of a debit card type transaction, right? So really a debit is practically a credit? Except it comes from my checking? And it’s not like I signed permission for them to debit it this time–just the couple of years ago! Or am I grasping at straws? I don’t wanna do accounting related stuff today!
Marvin–Maybe it is! I’m staying put now…well, for a little while.
Karen–Good luck getting over the jet-lag! I think I’d have to ban myself from doing laundry while jet-lagged. I can only imagine the pink boxers for my husband and son that might result from my errors…
Crystal–The funny thing is that frequently the customer service people can’t understand what *I’m* saying! :) I guess I have a thicker Southern accent than I think I do.
Kristen–Math SO confuses me. And the thought of going through my statements looking for a charge from an art school…bleh!
Helen–I guess sleuths like Jessica Fletcher from ‘Murder She Wrote’ got used to it (bodies were practically falling from the skies in Cabot Cove), but you’re right–unless it’s a police procedural, these folks should be pretty shaken up by an unexpected dead body.
Marisa–Cool blog! I know I visited it a while back and I must have accidentally not saved it to my Google Reader (sooo absent-minded.) I’ve stuck you on my blog-roll now so I won’t lose you again.
And…I’ve been putting off my phone call to the arteeest today. I have a feeling I’ll be just as discombobulated. Lots of writing this morning.
Carol–Good idea! My husband is more left-brain than I am (which it’s easy to be. I frankly wonder if I even have a left hand side to my brain or if it’s some shrunken raisin-looking thing.)
Janel–Crazy! I bet he felt just as baffled as me. And–if the message on the machine was from someone really stern–just as guilty as if he HAD done that!
Elspeth–Like she thought she was a spelling bee champ or something! Makes you wonder about people.
Yes, conflict is required for a good story, but the characters absolutely MUST react to that conflict, and sometimes humans react in the strangest of ways, in the most unpredictable fashion. Pesky creatures to capture, us humans.
That’s me! I’m often in the looking glass. I get so absorbed in what I’m doing, it often takes me a bit to catch on to the “real” world. My family finds it entertaining :)
Wow – what confusion! Sounds like an art school version of “Who’s on First”, lol. Well, time to click over to see what’s going on in the world of mystery writing!
Nancy, from Realms of Thought
Elizabeth–Very true. Otherwise things are happening TO them, and we’re not living the confusion and conflict WITH them.
Nancy–I thought of Abbott and Costello, too! Oh well. Maybe she’s helping my WIP be a bit more realistic.
I love Alice. These moments tend to happen when I’m trying to do too many things at once. I hope the artist gets her wires uncrossed.
Jemi–I’m sure they do! But *I* understand. :)
Tara–You’re so right. It’s when we’re juggling too much that these oddball moments happen.