Tayari's Blog: My Mind Is Playing Tricks On Me

Posted by TayariJones on May 19, 2008 06:41 AM
Filed under Writing

As I spent the last few days away, I have been gathering my thoughts and turning my attention to my manuscript. Well, I wrote a few lines and they sound a little bit familiar. One character says to another:

"Go home for the holidays. Your mama not for always, you know."

I think this line comes from somewhere in my memory. That expression "your mama not for always" is a sort of southern feeling thing. (Translation for those who are not familiar: your mother won't always be around.)

Although I am not worried that I am accidentally plagiarizing another writer, I worry that one of my characters in another book or story has already said that. Maybe it's someone in The Untelling, but I can't figure who would have occasion to make such a warning. (Hermione is just not sentimental like that.) It sort of sounds like Berenice, a character in my favorite short story, "Have You Known Me Lately", but I checked and it wasn't Berenice. (She's the girl from Opelika, Alabama who learned sex-ed from the Bookmobile Lady.)

Then the next thought is what does it mean that I am thinking of my characters like they are real people. I could be either brilliant or insane. Recent events suggest the latter....

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There are 1 comments on "My Mind Is Playing Tricks On Me". If you'd like to leave a comment, click here to jump down to the comments entry form.

Comment #1, by carleen [TypeKey Profile Page]

I get the same feeling from time to time. I've actually written the same thing twice in one manuscript so now I do a search when it sounds familiar!

And yes your people are real people. Nothing insane there!

May 21, 2008 09:47 AM

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