When Your Imaginary Friends Won’t Talk To You
By Marilize Roos
We’ve all experienced it: That dreaded silence when your characters just won’t talk to you. You’re stuck, or feel you may have written yourself into a corner, and your characters just give you… nothing.
Crickets.
When asking writers about their process, most writers I’ve ever spoken to say their plots are driven by the characters. That the characters get up to their shenanigans all by themselves, and the writer just shows up to take down the incident report. Whether you’re a pantser, writing on the fly with only a basic destination in mind, or a plotter who plans a detailed itinerary for the story’s journey, our characters are the biggest determiners of how our story will develop.
When our characters stop talking to us, it is often an indication that we don’t know them well enough. Often, if their personality and backstory were better known to us, we might understand their motivation better, and consequently, what they’d do next. And one way to get to know and bond with someone, is to buy them a drink… or two… or more.
So my advice is… buy your characters a drink—and get them drunk.
In Vino Veritas
(Latin: “In Wine, there is truth.”)
Write a scene where your characters get drunk. This scene doesn’t even have to make it into your story, if it doesn’t fit into your story arc, but it’s still a worthwhile exercise if it jars you out of your writers’ block. In practice, I’ve included each of my drunk-scenes in the final story, purely because the results have been pure gold, and you often uncover key elements of your characters this way.
Here are a few points for you to ponder in your attempts to get your characters drunk:
1. Do they normally drink?
– Are they usually tea-totalers, or even have an interest in alcohol?
– Do they drink whatever everyone else is having, but only drink in company?
– Do they go down to the pub every Friday for a few drinks?
– Or do they take to the bottle every time disaster strikes?
– Perhaps they’re alcoholics?
– Perhaps they have a complicated relationship with alcohol, which makes them stay away from it most of the time
– perhaps they have a glass of wine with every meal.
– Do they normally not drink, but like to celebrate successes with a glass of something fine?
2. What do they normally drink?
– Beer/cider/wine cooler
– Cheap wine?
– Expensive wine?
– Fancy cocktails, the kind normally served with an umbrella
– Regular mixed cocktails, like rum and coke, gin and tonic, brandy and coke, or screwdrivers
– Neat spirits, like brandy, whisky, bourbon, vodka
– Non-alcoholic, like neat coke, water, rock shandy or Shirley Temple.
3. What are they drinking now, and why?
– Is it their favourite drink?
– They normally drink something cheaper, but someone else is buying the drinks tonight?
– Someone asked them to try this drink? (And if they’re unfamiliar with this drink, do they over-imbibe because they can’t tell how strong it is?)
– Are they drinking it for the taste?
– Are they drinking it to forget, or to numb their emotions?
– Are they drinking it to lower inhibitions, and gain courage for something to come?
– Are they drinking to fit in with a social group?
– Are they drinking because it’s socially expected of them (such as at a bachelor party)?
4. Where are they drinking now?
– Pub
– Restaurant
– At home
– A friend’s house
5. Who’re they drinking with?
– Alone at home
– Alone at a bar, surrounded by strangers
– They tried to go alone, but a friend went with them to look out for them
– In a large group of family and friends
– Out on a date
– At a work function
6. Are they eating anything?
– Drinking on an empty stomach
– Eating all the peanuts and pretzels on the bar
– Ordering a meal with their drink
– Drinking at home, they’re eating whatever they can scavenge out of the fridge
7. How do they normally handle their alcohol?
– How much do they normally drink?
– How much do they normally drink before they get drunk?
8. What do they look like when they’re drunk?
– Do they get sick?
– Are they maudlin, mean, aggressive, or happy?
– Are they loud, or talkative, or do they get very quiet?
– Is being drunk the only way they’d get up the courage to sing karaoke?
– Do they just pass out, and their friends have to carry them home?
9. How does this episode of drinking affect their relationships with their loved ones?
– Not all drinking affects relationships badly, especially in the case of non-habitual drinkers.
– Does someone take photographs or videos of their drunken antics?
– Did someone have to come bail them out of jail?
10. Why are they drinking now?
– Worried
– Scared
– Stressed
– Overwhelmed
– Bachelor party
– Girls’ night
– To celebrate something
– It’s Tuesday
– After work function
The Aftermath…
11. Does our character have a hangover? If he does, what does it look like?
– Does he get sick?
– Headache?
– Dry mouth?
12. Is anyone there to take care of them?
13. Do they (or the person taking care of them) have a regular hangover remedy? What is it?
14. If something is revealed to the friend in the drunken state, how does this affect their relationship?
These are, of course, just suggestions of things to consider for this exercise. You may think of other questions, or your characters might decide to steer you in another direction altogether. You may decide to include this exercise in your story, or keep it filed away.
But either way, your characters no longer have the option of staying silent. And perhaps the old Latin saying really is true…
In vino, veritas.
About Marilize
I started out writing South African Historical Romance, and published 6 Regency-era romances, but I took the plunge into writing BDSM romance in 2020 when I published my first book in the Club Angelus series, “Michael”.
I pride myself on writing about women who discover their inner strength. My heroes are Alpha, strong and protective, yet have a vulnerability about them. I also write characters of diverse sexual orientations, including MF, FF, FFM, MMF, and MM.
I adore animals. I’ve raised cats, dogs, horses and chickens, and I’ve worked as a riding instructor, trail guide and stable manager, even occasionally as horse handler on film sets and photo shoots. I’ve also worked as photographer’s assistant, PR consultant, freelance typist, admin assistant and contractor’s assistant.
I am a proud member of the Romance writers’ Organization of South Africa (ROSA).