People with jobs, and other reasons to leave the house, gain a repertoire of interactions and experiences. Then, when you get together with these people, they talk to you about things they have seen and done. That's sort of how friendships tend to work.
So I can't decide if it's cool or geeky (though I'm leaning towards geeky)when, in the middle of a conversation, half the time I have something to say it's in this context:
"That's like in the novel I'm writing, there's this character who..."
The very phrase, "In the novel I'm writing," while not exactly a conversation-stopper comes pretty darn close. But what do you do when that's the truth? When the most interaction you've had (okay, other than with my husband, the clerk at the coffee place and my cat) is with people you made up yourself in your own head?
The scary thing is, I actually feel as though I've been interacting with real people, that their conversations are real ones I've been privy to.
JPR
posted by Jordan E. Rosenfeld @ 5:20 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
It's hard, really. You almost have to wall off that substantial part of yourself from conversation, talk about past things or keep bending the focus back on the other person, rather than share this weird chunk of self tied up in complex mental constructions..these characters and places and themes that aren't real anywhere in the world. Not yet, anyway.
Talk about it, and you come off as slightly dillusional. Talk around it, and you can seem quite empty of thought, social consciousness, and pop culture relevance. In a word, dull.
I try to get by with a smile and a "Fascinating. Tell me more..."
It is hard. It seems like you're not allowed to say anything until you're a big success.
Good for you for working on your novel!! That impresses me!!
Jim, what are you saying? That I should allow my friends to think I'm EVEN WIERDER by saying nothing at all??
Boy, this really is being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Katie: interesting point. On the one hand, being that I edit many many manuscripts I can see how people would be reasonably skeptical about one's talent with no publisher behind them...on the other hand, talent is overrated :)
I stopped talking about it at all. I don't like it when it's brought up. It makes me nervous.
When I used to write all day, though, I made sure to keep up with my This American Life. That way, I always had something to talk about.
Post a Comment
<< Home