lorri giovinco-harte

Posts Tagged ‘Six Characters in Search of an Author’

Poor, poor Jessica. She’s been following me around for decades, desperately looking for closure. Like the characters in Pirandello’s play, she has been living an incomplete existence, regulated to snippets of experience and false starts and stops.

In reality, Jessica’s different ordeals are a direct reflection of the phases of my own life.  In my early twenties, she was a reporter who found herself strangely enthralled by a charismatic serial killer – an interesting testament to my dating experiences.   Fast forward a few years and she became the reluctant leader of a planet dominated by religious zealots – a reaction to my changing views about religion. And now she’s finally found a home, nestled among a whirlwind of changes and shifting perceptions about the world I find myself living in.

It’s interesting how a particular character will exist for years, out of space and time, only to make occasional appearances in a story. Like a ghostly phantasm, they wait in the ether, periodically whispering, “Is it time yet?” Jessica is particularly stubborn and has persisted in exerting her presence. She is not one to be ignored, and it was only a matter of time before she found a permanent place amongst the written word.

Yet, what about the characters who haven’t? Do they wander aimlessly, having been cast out onto the fictional winds, or do they take matters into their own hands like the cast of Pirandello’s play, boldly searching for another author to finish their story?

The latter is a little frightening and makes me realize that I had better hurry up and put my hanging characters into action. Don’t worry, Darlene, I haven’t forgotten about you. Don’t leave me!  I promise I’ll find you a good home.