“Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.” — E.L. Doctorow

I found that quote on my normal morning pottering around the interwebz as i waited zombie-eyed in front of the screen for the coffee to kick in. I have loads to do today, well that’s normal for any day, but my mornings always start by sitting Brat down and giving her breakfast and turning her cartoons on then grabbing coffee and checking mail and wandering around various blogs.

That quote was on one of them and it got me thinking. Writing probably is when you think about it. I remember hearing a snippet from the TV one time, I think it was Johnathon Ross interviewing some actor but he said, “Acting is a strange profession, you spent 90% of your time pretending to be someone else.” It made me wonder if actors had psychological problems because of that. Do they lose track of who they are because they have to ‘be’ someone else a lot of the time?

Writing’s similiar. Actors spend 90% of their time pretending to be someone else, writers spend large amounts of time making stuff up! Which is what writing is when you get down to the bare bones of it. When I write I create a world to my rules, with my characters and the situations I want. Then I try and weave the words around the reader and con them into suspending belief for a little while and buying my version of reality. Reading is escapism for most, it is for me and I write (or try to) what I enjoy reading.

Sometimes it takes off on a tangent. Characters don’t play nice. My current WIP, Grace, my dark and dangerous Vamp hero Jaron suddenly developed snark and a sense of humour. I didn’t expect that. Who expects a sexy as hell vamp to liken himself to Marmite? (you either love him or you hate him?)

LOL I’d expected dark and brooding and I got sexy and sarcastic. It’s unexpected but I’m running with it. Jaron, although he’s a construct of my imagination, is shaping himself into something else. It’s not concious on my part and took me by surprise a little. Something must be prompting that, deep down in the old subconcious so yeah… I think writers must have a touch of schizophrenia or something like it buried deep down to to what they do.

Either that or some of them are just plain nuts. Ask anyone they’ll tell you I’m as batty a a fruitcake!