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I am still struggling with one of my WIP's, but this is a good thing. It is a story I want to fight for, even if I am fighting only myself as I search for the right way to tell it.
My heroine, Angel, reveres Jeanne d'Arc, the French peasant girl who was burned at the stake for heresy at age 19. Jeanne started hearing angelic voices when she was thirteen, and she followed the commands of these voices to don a suit of armor and drive the English out of France.
Bishops and kings--all men--were threatened by her. She wore men's clothing and bobbed her hair to protect her virginity on and off the battlefield. At her trial, she skillfully side-stepped the verbal traps set by the prosecution. After she was executed, the coals were scraped aside so her charred bones could be seen by witnesses. Then they were burned twice more.
She was decried and reviled by scholars and dramatists (including Shakespeare) for centuries. Five-hundred years later, she was declared a Roman Catholic saint.
Angel hears voices. specifically her dead Granny Roswyn, still bitter and cruel. Roswyn's been quiet for some time now, and Angel has the audacity to think she's been left in peace. She focuses on her job, works hard to move up the corporate ladder, and just when she is poised to shatter the last glass ceiling,
Granny Roswyn comes back. With less than helpful instructions.
When I first saw the title of this post, I immediately thought of the voices in my head i.e. when my characters seem to hold their own conversations and I simply write down what they're saying!
ReplyDeleteHaving read part of your story, I think in Angel's case the voices are her memories of her mean grandmother, returning to haunt her.
You are right.
ReplyDeleteLove the second picture, by the way! Meant to say that in my first comment, but forgot.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great premise for a book.
ReplyDeleteAnd, isn't it interesting, how some of our stories and characters fight us more than others? Maybe they're just trying to tell us to let go and let them tell their own story!
Maybe, Debra! This story will be hard fought--and a satisfying victory.
ReplyDeleteLove the brooding second photo too. I think that many of us hear voices--whether that means we're mentally unstable, or writers, though, that's the key! :)
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