Monday, May 24, 2010

Writers as characters

When you read a story about a writer, do you want to read any of the "novel"  the character is writing?

There's a twister for you Eh?

I've made one of my characters a writer in my story.  I have a scene where that character is going on about their own novel.   I've removed it, put it back in, removed it again, put it back once more.  
I don't know if it's a scene that would be considered needed or not.    I've seen it done both ways in books before,  depending on the rest of the story of course.   Sometimes it's been a good idea sometimes it's made me hate reading the book.

In Northanger Abby  Jane Austen did this. Had her heroine as a writer, and it focused on the fears of the writer more then the works. 
Stephen King has done this more then once, used writing as a career for his leads. The Shinning showed the struggles we writers have.   In his story Stand By Me he actually does have his writer show off his works. The novel sort of opens up and you end up reading the characters novel smack in the middle of the whole thing.