I did not sleep well after my flight yesterday. I woke up at nearly two hour intervals. Sometime around 3am, I woke up with a character knocking at my mind's door. I heard her voice through threshold, even managed to catch snatches of words.
Even so, I ignored her. Look, I mentally muttered, I have to be at a client early tomorrow and I'm three timezones behind. She didn't seem to care. Her voice -- nearly 12 hours later -- is still fresh and clear. Finally, I gave up. I switched on the light and groped for the notepad often found on hotel nightstands. In my unsteady, sleep-deprived hand, I wrote down what she said.
She went silent. Had I been paying attention, I might have heard her linger by the doorway for a minute before quietly walking away. I tossed the notepad aside and went back to sleep.
Some hours later my alarm sounded and I went off to work, leaving the note behind. In fact, I completely forgot about it soon after waking as one would any number of dreams. My client for the next two weeks tends to start very early in the morning, and ends their day similarly early. I had been coming in at the tail end of a sizable systems migration, and no one was quite ready for me yet. I helped where I could, went to lunch, briefly planned our tasks for the next fortnight, and went back to the hotel.
I decided to relax for a while on my bed, catching up on many of the sites on which I had been delinquent this morning. The outlet was on the right side of the room. Nearly finished settling in, I found the scrawled notepad. I was startled by what it said:
I know one thing for certain: I was or am born in the 20th Century. If you find my story useful, you may personally reward me with another life.
I had written questioningly "Reki?" under the quote. The character did sound very much like the voice actor for Reki in Haibane Renmei, but I suspect this is a passing resemblance.
Despite the fact I the "letter" was in written by my hand, it feels strangely foreign to me. It's almost as if this note was left behind for only me to find.
*smiles at this* A
*smiles at this*
A promising start, perhaps?
Meeting a new character who seems to have chosen you is one of those most potent moments for a writer, when one is no longer trying to craft a story on one's own efforts but has found a companion who will be too happy to speak, if only we listen.
Or maybe I'm simply
Or maybe I'm simply crazy? ^_^
What I failed to mention in the post was that the character definately carried a great deal of regret with her. There was an implication that she had lived once before, but couldn't remember and somehow made some serious mistakes. This explains the similarity to Reki, but there was something more to this character.
It was as if she was asking me personally, directly, for another chance.
Or maybe I'm simply
Or maybe I'm simply crazy? ^_^
Let it never be said that they're mutually exclusive. ^_^
What I failed to mention in the post was that the character definately
carried a great deal of regret with her. There was an implication that
she had lived once before, but couldn't remember and somehow made some
serious mistakes. This explains the similarity to Reki, but there was
something more to this character.
I suppose I don't find that terribly odd, on the face of it.
I've met a couple characters who felt as though they had an ineffable "something more" to them, and in one specific case a fairly clear-cut agenda for why he wanted me to write his story (that is, why he wanted the story told, not why it was me in particular--I was simply handy and willing to listen). It weirded me out, even back when I was more animist in my thinking. I've learned not to question it beyond necessity; characters who introduce themselves are vanishingly rare for me, but the writing never flows better.
It was as if she was asking me personally, directly, for another chance.
If you'll pardon me for being obtuse, I think she was.