Recently I was asked, ‘What kind of writer do you wish to be, Mrs. Menchan?”
My answer was pretty simple, “I am the writer I wish to be, one who writes stories that people want to read, talk about, that has a message but is fun with unexpectedness.”
The asker was a bit puzzled by my answer and said as much. Told me the expected me to say, ‘Popular author.’ ‘Best-selling author’ et al.
I smiled and understood, because most writers if they are honest, will admit to having sat and thought of selling hundreds of thousands of books and having to do nothing more strenuous than write the next book. But most real and realistic writers will also tell you that they knew going in that the potential for that to happen was pretty slim. It is much like dreams of being LeBron James if you play basketball, or JayZ if you are a rapper. It happens, but it doesn’t happen to many and will cause you much pain and anxiety if that is all you have.
For me writing is a way to release those stories that are out there,and in me, about ordinary people who usually have extraordinary things occur in their lives. Most of us do you know! There are so many nuances to living and they all make for good, even great stories if the time is taken to tell them.
A couple of years ago I was at a book signing in my home town and one of the women who had been my friend since childhood, told me she was literally astonished that so many scenarios went on in my head and made it to paper. In that same place, some of the readers were trying to figure out if they knew the players in the books. My answer is of course they do and they don’t. I try to write about the realest people I can with the realest issues. My goal is also to write {talk} about them in ways that isn’t necessarily salacious or shocking for the sake of being salacious or shocking. Because it is easy to throw in lots of graphic sex or violence and hope it’s enough to make the reader stay tuned. But, it’s something else again to make the reader go, ‘Dang, I would have never thought of it in that way or to feel the love of the characters without ever hearing them moan or groan or know the size of their umm body parts.
I recall sitting at another book discussion almost four years ago and one of the women said, “I don’t really know what Malcolm Black looks like.” Before I could say anything, several others responded by saying, “I do” or “Girl, I have a picture of him in my mind, my heart.” Still, another described her idea of how he looked. My heart exploded with pleasure because that is what I love. For these fictionalized characters to resonate with the readers, for them to ‘see’ them.
When writing Zen Cooper, Woman-Child, Ghetto-Genius, I had no idea where I was going. The first few lines came straight from my life. The conversation that took place in the class room came from my life when I was in sixth grade. But after that the characters added themselves. The mother Frieda was like no one I really know. Crazy Charlie was a microcosm of so many vets I had seen wandering the streets in my youth. And I filled in their lives with people who had as much color and flavor as they did and who could stand alone telling their own stories.
That is why I write to fill pages with people we know, think we know, never met, might get to know and mostly because writing is that place where it is all me…just me and we all need that…I think.
Be BLESSED!
angelia
