Sunday, July 4, 2010

The Writer's Lightbulb

The other day, my husband and I were talking when he called someone a 'hawkeye'.  I replied, "What is that?" since what I heard is 'hogeye'.  He responded that he was being facetious since the guy cannot see anything far away.  I still didn't understand why a nearsighted person would be a  'hogeye'.  I was still confused.  I repeated, "Still don't get it."  He patiently elaborates, " It's like calling a big guy 'Tiny' ."  I thought that was hilarious, but still no prize for getting me understand 'hogeye'.  Much later, after I  wrote it down, he got a chuckle.

In my current manuscript, I needed a secondary character to appear and I didn't have a name or persona.  I gleefully used the idea from this conversation to name him 'Tiny'.  No, I won't be using the names 'Hawkeye' or even 'Hogeye", but I love the thought of meeting a hulking character called Tiny.  This is really how I get a lot of ideas for major and minor plotlines and characters.  Something happens in daily life, and I think, "I could use that."

Actually, I wonder if most authors just pick up a daily newspaper to come up with some intriguing and unique plotlines.  Haven't you ever read a news article and thought, "You just can't make that stuff up!"  I believe that's why people are so drawn to reality televisiont.  You know what they say... Real life is stranger than fiction .

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