Wax, you had me worried there for a minute; I wondered what you were accusing me of. And yes, you are completely crazy, but you knew that already, didn't you?

I'm with you on the multi-dimensional thing.

Sharon

MIne fell like american daytime soap characters, but that's lack of talent!!!

oh well

James,
No lack of talent with you!
Soap characters are often much more 'real'... this is why these programmes build up vast audiences. I believe this is because the writers accentuate only one or two aspects of that character, like being gullible, strong, bossy, nasty, kindly, vindictive and so on.

We know that in real life people are normally much more complex in their characteristics.

I think that is what makes 'Harvey' almost a work of genius with no complications as to what kind of 'person' Harvey might be... he is a rabbit - a 6ft rabbit, so no problems in accepting that he is real.
Len

Stephen King actually explored this idea in his novel The Dark Half .

A writer, (Thad Beaumont I believe was his name) kills of the main protagonist from his hardboiled thriller series, George Stark. The author even has an imaginary 'funeral' for the character and then...well, then the character of Stark is born into the real world with some pretty nasty results...

Does anyone else know of any stories where this idea is explored? (God, I sound like a bloody English teacher now!)

JB

I think Jasper Fforde's the Well of Lost Plots goes somewhere near there, but I'm not sure 'cos I got bored after 2 chapters. And Dan Simmon's Ilium has a lot of multi-dimensional stuff going on based around the Iliad, but probably not quite in the way you're talking about.
Sharon

No, Waxy, you do not sound like a bloody English teacher... you sound like a very competent and knowledgeable English teacher.
Len

Charmed, I'm sure.

JB

In François Ozon's 'Swimming Pool' an old maid writer goes to stay in her editor's house in the south of France somewhere, in order to find inspiration to finish the next in her series of detective novels. However, her quiet life is upset by the arrival of his wild promiscuous daughter. It is only at the end of the film that we realise the daughter was a figment of the writer's imagination... Strange film.
Then, of course, there's 'Adaptation'
Elspeth

Adaptation was a good movie. I'll have to check out the other one. I've got a short novella idea to explore this theme myself. I did actually write one called 'Lost Chapters' about two 17th century lovers who got trapped in a story, but guess what...the computer went down and the novella got lost!

JB

Nasty moment, JB! I had a similar one at the weekend. I was working on TWH when a pop-up box appeared saying MS had encountered a problem and would have to close. When I opened TWH again, all I had was one blank page… 84,000 words lost…

Luckily I had it backed up, apart from the latest chapter which I’d just uploaded onto WW, so I could copy it back. But it was a sticky moment of epic proportions!

Dee
x

I watched Harry He's Here to Help the other day. A guy meets Harry who says he's an old school friend, but who he doesn't remember. Harry clings to him, reminding him he used to write and trying to clear all the obstacles in his life that are stopping him. Including his family. Harry seems real, but he's a personification of that raw ruthless urge to write. Sharon

I saw that one too (funny trasnlation!) It was very black.
Elspeth

It's great that we've uncovered this common theme.

Dee, that is terrible and I think every writer's greatest fear. I'm so so glad you backed up. I started doing that after that Sex and the City episode when Carrie loses all the writing she's ever done. A warning to us all...mind you, WW helps right? BTW - I think you were the only one who ever read 'Lost Chapters'. I still have the plot in my head, so maybe when I have time, I'll start a rewrite.

JB

Er… James… I’ve just registered what you said about when your computer went down…

I have a confession to make.

Because ‘Lost Chapters’ was pretty long, I copied it onto my laptop… then you took it off the site before I could post my comments about it…

I've just checked... I still have it…

If you WWmail me an email address I can send to you as an attachment – or I could send it as a very long WWmail…

Dee
x

Oh, how exciting, Dee. You've saved the day! Did anyone copy a story of mine called "Cutting off heads"? I lost it when my computer went down...
Elspeth