04 December 2008

Names

Many of you know me as Sage or WiseHerb, and of course you know that's not my name in real life.

A over at A Changing Life, set me thinking about identities and why we use, and how we use them.

I wrote for a group, a while back, and needed a character to play with. So I created Safara McPherson a fiercely independent character who was a bit of a daredevil and strong person.. completely different from me on most things, notably being at least 4 inches taller! It was due to Saf that I ended up with a motorbike, as I wanted her to have one, as befitted her character. So did some research, went to see them in person, had no intention of having one myself as I considered them way too dangerous and yet here I am 6 years later (almost) with my own bike and travelling 2000 miles in one holiday.

When I needed someone to interact with Saf more closely, Sean Strathern entered the arena of play. Now I admit that this was a bit cheeky, only one other person in the group knew that Sean and Saf were my characters and not two independent writers and it was a challenge to write while thinking like a man (difficult as I had no experience to fall back on only that what sounded different to Saf's style). I sparred with these characters for 6 months before coming clean to the group that in fact they were being written by the same person ie. me, and many of them had thought that Sean was a different writer completely.

The only comment I have to make on the subject was on the piece I was writing it was hard to keep the separation between the two characters, even to the extent that you almost had to push the other character into the background to do the other piece and then swap around.. needless to say my mind was quite bombarded with the ideas for writing for one person while supposed to be writing for the other… it caused many hilarities during the time I had them going..

Sadly now I haven't written anything for months.. maybe one day in the future I will get back to that book in the making.

5 comments:

Elaine said...

Good luck with your future book writing. I talk enough (and now blog enough) to keep me going.

The W.O.W. factor! said...

I've wondered, Sage..about you writing...
I love your style, your words can envelope my mind so well!
You NEED to!
(did you say you have one in the making...for how long has it gone untouched?)
You are amazing, you know that I hope!
Have a glorious day!
I need to hit the sack in my world.
~Hugs~
Barb

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the mention Sage! It's an interesting topic I find, the one of identities, especially now that online we can in theory have several. It ought to be easy online, because there are no non-verbal cues to show that you are faking, none of those things that are supposed to show internal conflicts. And yet, somehow, we seem able to relate to each other and form friendships entirely satisfactorily. Fascinating.

I'm wondering if it was easier for you to have a male counterpart because it could be very different, while it might have been more difficult to separate two female characters. I'm tempted to try. :)

Kathy G said...

So you found your avocation (motorbiking) because you felt your character needed one. That's very interesting!

Janet said...

That would be a fascinating exercise. I love it that that's how you ended up with a motorcycle!