Suzie’s House 329 : Michelangelo’s Coffee House

Oh no. They found me.

Ever since the kids got out of school for the summer they’ve been bugging me. It’s gotten so that I couldn’t concentrate at all. So I grabbed my ipad and keyboard and headed down to Michelangelo’s Coffee House.

Sometimes I’d rather do my writing in public anyway. It was kind of a toss up. On the one hand, having people around me made me feel like working harder, as if slacking off or playing computer games or surfing the internet couldn’t be allowed when someone was there to call me on it. On the other, when I’m really deep in my story, it tends to show on my face. People will give me funny looks as I laugh out loud or sniffle.

I’d started out at Dotty Dumplings Dowry, but the greasy air and constantly shifting crowd drove me off. Not to mention the insidious way they managed to wheedle money out of my pocket and fat onto my hips. Cheddar bacon burgers.

This place, with the smell of coffee – which I like even if I can’t drink it – and the clatter of keyboards as people around me pound away at their laptops, suits me better. Hardwood floors, classic artwork on the walls, and a steady stream of people coming and going to watch; this place was even better than my office at home.

I never thought they’d come wandering into a coffee house. When they did, I hoped they’d wander back out without noticing me at the very back of the store. No such luck.

“Mrs. Audrey! There you are. We were just at your house.” Lisa grabbed her pink colored smoothie and joined me as if it had been pre-arranged.

“We have some questions.” Ben took a chair from another table without asking anyone and sat down with his yellow smoothie centered in front of him. He leaned forward and gave me an intent look. “How do you make a character sketch?”

“Um… well…” This could be a long discussion. “What makes you ask?”

“We’ve been writing all this time without really doing one.” Lisa acted like the barely-a-year she’d been at it should be considered a long time. “I read about it in a book. It sounded like a good idea.”

“Was this a writing book? If so, then it will probably tell you how to go about it.” I took a sip of my Italian soda and eyed my ipad. If I didn’t get back to it in a few more seconds it would shut itself down. It always made me nervous because the Quick Office Pro doesn’t let me do manual saves.

“But we want to know how you do it.” Ben looked oh-so-eager.

“I don’t.” I flipped the cover over the ipad and shoved the keyboard away from me. “Unless you count what goes into my outline spreadsheet.”

“But that’s just for plot, isn’t it?” Lisa’s brow wrinkled.

“Do you think plot and character are unrelated? Especially the way I write.”

They both gave me blank stares. I’d say something about how they could at least buy and read my work in exchange for the free lessons, but considering their age, I held my tongue. Not that Ben would get into Romance anyway.

“I tend to be a bit plot heavy. I don’t put much into descriptions and barely manage enough details so you can kind of guess where the characters are or what they look like. I even once finished a rough draft only to realize I hadn’t yet decided what color the heroine’s eyes were. My beta readers never noticed.”

“You didn’t pick her eye color?!” Lisa looked shocked. “But how will your readers know what she looks like?”

“I guess they don’t. But they know what she acts like. Remember, my spreadsheet has columns for the goals, motivation, and conflict of each primary character for each scene. For me, plot and character are so deeply entwined I can’t do one without the other.”

“But is what a character does the only thing that matters?” Ben’s brow wrinkled into an argumentative line.

“No, of course not. But it never did me any good to write out things like what accent a character has or how he moves. That stuff all just comes out as I write. It seems like for some writer’s writing that stuff ahead of time helps them reveal things to themselves. For me it just wasted time.”

“Oh. Reveal.” Lisa nodded as if this made a difference. “But really everything is in what a character does. Right?”

“Yes and no. For instance, the story I’m working on right now. The heroine is coming across as a little too clueless. Normally I would change her actions to show that she’s smart, but this particular book is tied in with several other books and my serial, so the bit of action that is causing problems has to stay. I have to find other ways of making it work.”

“You can do that?”

“Sure. I can have her doing it against her better judgment. I can have her forced into it, or have her do it accidentally. The way someone says something can be every bit as important as what they say.”

“But is that plot or character?” Lisa glanced at Ben before sipping her smoothie.

I spread my hands, palms up, and smiled. Their guess was as good as mine.

“So, tell us the truth. You were hiding from us, weren’t you,” Ben smiled and glared at the same time.

I smiled back.

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