Listen when Your Characters Speak
Hello, the camp! Tasha Hackett here, author of Bluebird on the Prairie and many more to come. Mary asked if I would share something I’ve learned as an author. Of course my first thought was: “Everything. Duh. I’ve learned everything.” I went from knowing nothing, to learning everything and still somehow knowing nothing. But aside from the tangible how-tos, I’ve learned how to listen when my characters speak.
Chances are, they have a lot to say, and if you can figure out how to listen to them, you’ll get along much better. How often do you think you’ve made up a story in your own head with your very own make-believe characters, but then they’re off doing and speaking whatever they very well please? We would all do well to listen when our characters speak. I thought I was writing a story about this, but it turned out to be about this. Has that ever happened to you? Though I don’t have as many books under me as some of you, with one published, one drafted, and a thousand to be written, in my time writing these two books, I’ve learned how important it is to listen when my characters speak.
Bluebird on the Prairie started as a whim. My husband and I brainstormed a silly story where Zombie Apocalypse meets Hallmark Western Romance. If you know me at all, you’re already laughing. Tasha is not about to write a book about zombies. Vampires, maybe. Zombies, ew. Once I started writing, I got to know Zeke and Eloise and learned right away they had a story to tell about hope (that didn’t include zombies in any way, shape, or form.) Zombies were out and western was out. I was left with a Swedish prairie town in Nebraska, a widow living with her brother who’d shut herself away from love, and an orphaned traveler on his way to California.
July 7, 2018. I wrote my WHY: “I want my reader to feel hope at the end. Because, to me, novels are an escape to a better place. A place where the hero is strong and brave. A place where people get back up again.
“I want the story to feel real, but I always want LOVE TO OVERCOME. I want God’s grace to expand into my imaginative world and show readers the vast goodness of God’s plan. I want my novels to inspire hope back into the lives of the readers.
“I want the reader to feel the truth of Eloise’s pain and grief and then grow WITH her as she begins to trust God. I want the reader to feel hope that God is real and that he not only sees, but cares and has a plan for us. And I will do it all with a story that pulls the reader into this world where they never feel they’re being preached at.”
Listening to my WHY changed everything. I found I couldn’t write Eloise’s story. This was no longer a silly story where guy-meets-girl and they both run to their happily-ever-after. It suddenly became so much more and I was scared I couldn’t do Eloise justice. Eloise was a young widow, and I didn’t know how to give her a happily-ever-after. You can’t FIX grief. There’s no MOVING ON from grief.
Grief is an emotional suffering caused by or as if by a bereavement. An emotional suffering when something you love has been taken away. How could I write this happily-ever-after for Eloise? The more I got to know her, the more I realized I could NOT send a man to waltz into her life and make everything better. I just wasn’t going to do that. It’s not realistic. Certainly it’s not healthy.
I believe other authors would agree with me when I say, sometimes the stories we write don’t even feel like our stories, but these characters come to us and we have to get to know them and find out what they need and what they want, and then let them tell their own story. That’s not something I understood until I experienced it. Sometimes Zeke would say things to Eloise and I would simply step back and think, “Whaaa? You are so smart. Where you did you learn this?”
Listen to this one. I found it written in my notes, but I didn’t put it in the novel because it’s so good I honestly don’t know if I stole it from someone else and didn’t credit them. From Zeke’s outlook in life: “Hardship does not have the power to rob us of hope for the future.” And, “Happiness and love are granted to all who SEEK IT OUT.” My character said that. Not me. I’d never say that. Tasha would say, “Fool me once . . . I’m going to be super, doubly sure to be prepared and put up lots of walls so I don’t get hurt again.” Zeke knew better, and he’s a pretty wise dude. He’s clumsy as all get out and oblivious to most things. But still. He’s got great morals.
There I am, back in 2018 trying to write a book, but I can’t figure out what to do for my character Eloise. Because I hadn’t yet found the hope after my own grief. How could I possibly write it for her when I didn’t understand it myself? I’m not (and wasn’t) a widow. But I understand a fair amount of grief. I’m telling you today there is hope after grief. I’m also the girl who couldn’t write that story when I first tried. God had quite a bit of work to do in me (and will continue until I die). I had my fourth child and stopped writing for a season while I learned a hard and beautiful lesson. Namely: There is hope after grief. Zeke and Eloise kept dancing around in my imagination and I kept listening and getting to know them. Finally they were ready to share the rest of their story in Bluebird on the Prairie. A bluebird symbolized hopeto me with a nod to Emily Dickinson's poem, “Hope is the thing with feathers,” and what with the bluebird coming back each spring.
Bluebird on the Prairie is available wherever books are sold and my website. You can find it at Walmart.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or my favorite: request from any local bookstore. As a special thank-you, email me a copy of your receipt and I’ll send you Four Ways to Recover Hope. These are four tangible things that I found to be encouraging as I processed my own struggles.
I’d love to get to know you, too! How have your characters been speaking to you? How have you rediscovered hope? You can find me on Instagram @hackettacademy and my website www.TashaHackett.com and email tasha@tashahackett.com
Bluebird on the Prairie
by
Tasha Hackett
Haunted by nightmares after her husband's death, Eloise Davidson struggles to find peace. Avoiding the town and the people in it has become part of who she is. When she meets a traveler who falls at her feet, she is more than willing to forget the whole embarrassing thing ever happened. Eloise has enough to worry about without entertaining silly daydreams. But when Zeke threatens the safety net she’s built around herself, she’s not prepared for how her world will change.
Amazon.com: Tasha Hackett: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle
Bluebird on the Prairie : Hearts of the Midwest - 1 (Paperback) - Walmart.com
