Fun With Old Friends

by M. L. Buchman

Okay, I have a real problem with old friends...they cost me an immense amount of time.
Maybe not as much as new friends.
But...sheesh!

Let me give you an example from yesterday.

There I was, happily working along, building a new collection of short stories. Actually, three of them but two aren't out yet.

Hotshots is releasing next week (https://books2read.com/the-complete-hotshots)

So, there I was looking over fifteen different stories about my wildland wildfire firefighters (how's that for an awkward mouthful?). I wrote these from 2015-2018, which wasn't all that long ago.

Six hours later (6!!!) I reemerged from my quick scan. I'd revisited crew leads, betas, alphas, adventurers, ex-military, the damaged, and the whole.

Writing is a real hazard for a writer who likes their own characters.

I don't even have the excuse of the new introductions I wrote for each story...I wrote those six months ago when I lost yet another day or two to revisiting these same old friends.

Another example. Months ago I wrote an origin story for Miranda Chase (one of my newer friends who's taking a lot of my time lately) for a charity anthology. I've long since turned in the story, but I was writing an ad for it last week...

https://books2read.com/origins-of-honor

The ad had nothing to do with the story...but I had to reread the story anyway and lost another hour. SIGH! (Great antho by the way, just saying. Thriller, SF, military... Written by a bunch of friends and some of their friends. Can't wait to read it myself.)

I guess it's kind of a weird view of how a writer thinks. These characters for some brief time were my closest friends. Not that I don't have friends out in the world, but for the brief days or weeks that I was writing their story, I was discovering everything about them--far more than I know of even my closest friends. Hopes, fears, the dream they wouldn't admit to anyone. I got to follow their emotions as the faced fire, and loss, and crushed hopes. And I like to think they'd have liked me for finding a way to tell their story.

My wife has long since learned to be patient. We were watching some show the other night (might have been the Great British Bake Off--might have seen all of the episodes of all ten years...just maybe). And we both love to cook, so we're always chatting about techniques that we see on the show.

So, she asked something, finally having to call out my name to get my attention...we were sitting on the couch with her feet in my lap, so we weren't all that far apart.

"Oh, sorry, I was just wondering how I'd write that baker's accent. It's so distinctive."

There I was, sitting with my wife, and I was off trying to make a new friend: that baker's accent, but maybe a deep sea diver, or a...

BUT, try explaining your "nonexistent" friends that you spent so much intimate time with on the page (and I'm not talking about the sex scenes, [how fast did your mind go there anyway? :) ]), and your "normal" friends think you've totally lost it. I have a group of "normal" friends (real live ones) who we have breakfast with every week. And I was washing dishes with one of them, and tried to explain this. She's curious about the writing process...but now also thinks I'm totally nuts! Double SIGH!

So, the next time you're talking to your invisible friends...
Keep your relationship on the page.
If you're a friend of a writer...approach with caution.
Just a suggestion.

M.L. "Matt" Buchman has 60+ thriller and romance novels, 100 short stories, and lotsa audiobooks. PW says his thrillers will make “Tom Clancy fans open to a strong female lead clamor for more.” Booklist declared three novels “Top-10 Romances of the Year.” A project manager with a geophysics degree, he’s designed and built houses, flown and jumped out of planes, solo-sailed a 50’ sailboat, and bicycled solo around the world…and he quilts. More at: www.mlbuchman.com.