One challenge for writing JOURNEY was that I had to deal with a major character who was blind. That meant, of course, that in all of Jendai's (am I spelling that right?) scenes, I couldn't describe anything that she might SEE--because she couldn't see. It actually became a useful exercise, because just as she had to rely on all her other senses, so did I. I found myself searching for sounds and smells and textures--all the things a blind girl would notice. Not sights.
I tried not to slip, but it's hard. In fact, I had a blind character in THE FACE, and an astute reader wrote the other day to point out a place where I had Judson say, "I saw . . ." Oops. If there's ever a reprint, I'll have to fix that.
Tomorrow: The editing
~~Angie
2 comments:
What a challenge. But from reading and listening to Jennifer Rothschild and reading a great new book I just reviewed (For the Love of Dogs) about a young woman going blind, I've learned that they use much of the same words we do. Jennifer talks about "reading" a book - doesn't differentiate that she listened to it on in audio format. And there's a specific instance in the Love of Dogs book that addresses something like that.
I get the impression that we who can see get much more freaked out about it than they do.
LOL You did not slip, that is, until you misspelled her name. Jendayi
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