Branch: *stares, goggle-eyed* What are /you/ doing here?!

Relena: *drops her luggage and puts her hands on her hips* You put on my song. What did you expect? Now, if you don't mind please, I'd like some fic.

Branch: O_O

Relena: I'm sick of the whole Princess gig; and I'm sick of carrying nearly all the feminine roles in this damn show. I want to be a pilot.

Branch: *cautiously* Well, I'm with you there...

Relena: *relentlessly* So we'll do an AU. I want Treize to know who I am and decide he wants both Peacecrafts.

Zechs: *chokes*

Relena: *rolls her eyes* Not /that/ way, Onii-sama, honestly. *sniffs* Perhaps he can decide you're too depressed to be of political use and train me up for that instead.

Branch: *a bit weakly* That's not a fic, that's an arc. That's an epic!

Relena: *calmly* Your point?

Branch: I don't have that much Pat Benatar!

Relena: I'm sure we can work around that.

Treize: *crosses his legs, covering a smile* This should be... interesting.

A recent post made me think.

Do my characters really *talk* to me? Do I hold actual conversations with them?

I mean, when I write it out in here, that's what it looks like. But in a lot of ways it feels like I'm translating what actually happens, which isn't verbalization at all.

On the other hand, there were a few times while writing "Glow" when I started to write some action, usually for Ed, and got a very definite veto. If I translate it into words it goes something like

Ed: Excuse me? I am not letting him carry me, what the hell are you thinking!?

It doesn't happen in words, though. That's just what I translate it to when I want other people to be able to hear it.

It's a lot more like echolocation, that process of asking myself questions until I get a solid "bounce", a firm contact, a "yes, that's it". Feelings, not words.

Only, it isn't asking myself, for this.

Storyspace, where all these characters stay, is an odd one. It's not part of my self, for all that it's inside my head. It's a shared space. I make it *out of* my self, and then use it to store copies of characters I like, which are, in effect, other people. Other people with whom I can utilize the protocals for internal communication. It makes the process of writing... curious. The plot comes out of my head, and then I bounce it off the shape of the characters and listen for how they react. And translate their reaction into dialogue. But to make that bounce work, I have to take the characters a little out of Storyspace, a little into my self. That's what gives me the channel of communication that carries the "yes I would do that/no I wouldn't do that" response. There has to be a constant feedback between my awareness of the plot and my awareness of the shapes of the characters, so I can hear when there's a break in congruity. A bad note.

I think maybe this is why I write so fast, when I write the stories down. Nonverbal communication, the internal kind, is extremely fast. I need to translate fast to keep up with it.

So I guess I'd have to say my characters don't really *talk* to me. But communication certainly happens when I rummage around in Storyspace.

Bugger the qwerty keyboard! Bugger the history of mechanical typewriters! And double bugger whatever is making my fingers so stiff today!

*grouse, grouse, grouse*

I'm also finding it rather peculiar that Roy is so reticent about sex from his pov.

Roy: A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell, Madam.

I'm your *author*, here, Roy, get over it. I'm *supposed* to know more about you than your mother and your therapist put together.

Roy: *secretive smile*


Characters. What can you do?