It became rather apparent to me that Lamontt has a love affair with her characters. I don't think for a moment that she would doubt this, either. I did have some trouble following what she had to say about plot. To me, plot is far more important than she makes it out to be. She talks about following a character while they do mundane tasks, an example is when she talks about going to the city dump.
My first reaction to this was "Who the fuck would want to read about that?" Seriously? You can have the greatest characters in the world, but if those characters are doing things that are that boring, who the hell would want to follow it? I can understand why she put such a huge emphasis on characters and their development. As humans we don't associate with actions (plot) we associate with other people (characters). Characters allow us to relate to a story, if you will we can imagine ourselves in the character's shoes. We follow the characters through their actions and emotions, sure. But I am not going to read a 200 page novel about some guy who wakes up in the morning, makes his toast and coffee, drinks it...then realizes he has to take a shit.
If I wanted to follow such regular activities, I would film myself taking a shit and watch it over and over. But, seriously, who the hell wants to do that? I like the idea of creating a character and letting that character drive the plot forward. That's a pretty sound idea. But, at some point you have to have a general idea of where the story is going. You can't just let the cards fall where they may, or else most stories would end up being about regular boring ass people. Nobody likes reading about regular boring ass people, we are all regular boring ass people...Where is the fun in reading stories like that?
That being said...Lamontt did raise something that interested me. She made being a writer sound like a lonely and terrible thing, until you hit it big and become all famous and shit. But before that, you drink and are depressed and do drugs. That, in part, is what gives your writing some soul. It's not about being a boring person and letting that boring person explore an exciting character...I like that she admits that when she was writing her book, and her editor said her book was shit, she started drinking and doing lines of yeyo. It makes it a little more exciting... Plus, she talked about closing her eyes or staring off and inventing characters and following them around in her head. Seriously it sounds like she is suggesting that we all do some drugs and let whatever hallucinations we experience come out on paper. Works for me...Worked for Aldous Huxley. That's weird to say...I don't even do drugs anymore. And believe me, I have done my share of pychoactives. Hell, 6 years ago, you were lucky to find me sober for more than 20 minutes. I've become another boring person, but I still feel like some of those experiences have helped me know what it is like to be an interesting character. If you are gonna be writing about interesting characters, who have interesting and compelling dialogue, you have to have been an interesting character at some point in your life. The truth in writing is the same as it is in music... "No junk, no soul."
That's the truth, ain't it?
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