It’s Easter weekend, so I figure this week we’ll blog about Easter Eggs. Not the chocolate type though, but those little hidden surprises that you get usually when watching a DVD and you’re always on the lookout for. But this isn’t about DVD’s more about the unexpected Easter Eggs or gifts you get when you’re writing. Those surprises that suddenly creep up and leave you lost for words because they’ve unlocked an intrinsic part of the puzzle and everything becomes just a little bit clearer.
Together we’ve taken a long weekend to spend on our writing. And honestly, we’ve surprised ourselves with not only how much we’ve got done but also the sorts of things that we’ve found out. We’d made changes a couple of months back that we haven’t had the chance to explore, and this has been the time to do so. And with a couple of our characters, it has left us quite frankly speechless.
We had a couple. In our eyes, they were the perfect couple. We could never have imagined splitting them up, we couldn’t have imagined anything other than the two of them together. We had a future set out where they would get married, have children and that would be that, in fact it’s pretty much been the case with these two since day one. Until we realised that they weren’t working. They weren’t it. In fact, they weren’t even comfortable with one another, not really at least. We started seeing the patterns, how one character would give up on the other and slowly we started to question it.
And then we got bold. Bold enough to change the golden couple, to switch them out with different partners. For my male in the partnership, it was his best friend that he went to. The girl who has been there through all the ups and downs but not once did Charlotte and I say hey … let’s put B with her! Just as, we’d never looked at Charlotte’s girl and thought how well she would work with one of her best friends, who just happened to be B’s sibling.
It’s magic. I swear it’s magic. Suddenly we have these characters, all four of them who are happy. They respond. You can get feelings and emotions out of them. And when once there was fear, uncertainty and even a little bit of hesitation there isn’t that anymore. Of course, there will always be those things in the wider world that we have created – but not in their relationships.
Don’t get me wrong, we don’t want ever relationship to be rosy and full of the joys of spring. We know that isn’t reality and honestly, with none of these relationships will we ever have something that is either ‘normal’ or ‘steadfast’. There will be ups and there will be downs. There will be moments of doubt and so many other things, but in the end they will come out of it stronger for it.
And that was the problem we had previously, they wouldn’t have come out stronger for it.
These were characters that we needed, so they needed to be in full working condition. If we didn’t? Then it would have jeopardised our story and that wasn’t something we could afford to happen. But this weekend has shown us that we have found our Easter Eggs, our hidden gifts and that the rewards we have reaped from them have been glorious, that much I think we’ll both agree on!
We’re taking a bit of time out in the evening’s now – I mean, come on we do kind of deserve it! But we’re reading or watching a movie together which has proven to be quite fun. Even if it is a kind of work, it is a fun way of doing it and helps us both visualise the end product. It’s encouragement if nothing else for us to keep writing – and after managing over 20,000 words in just under 2 days? I’d say it’s working!
~ Clara
Charlotte and Clara 