In every book I’ve written, there’s generally a scene that gets to me, hard. Usually the waterworks don’t turn on, but every now and then I might be cutting a few onions in this house when I write certain scenes. When I was writing Journey of the Caged, there were two such moments, and I think it’ll be pretty obvious when you read it which two I’m talking about (no spoilers here).
The first one I got through pretty okay. I had to stop for a while, do some dishes, mop, and get my mind off the project. The second, I was on a freakin’ roll, just slamming down words until I hit this part and then… bam. I have to stop and deal with it. And in this case, we’re talking full-on waterworks. I’m bawling like a three-year old who just had his favorite Transformer taken away.
And right then, my mom calls me.
Now, mind you, my mom has seen me moody about my books before, especially For All the Sins of Man and Plague of Life. I regularly have lunch with her just about every weekday so it’s inevitable that some of the emotions necessary to what I write seep through. But she’s never hear or seen me full on choked up from writing.
So here I am, about two sentences from finishing a scene, trying to type with already trembling fingers, and my mom calls me. First thing I say into the phone, with a throat about as squeezed as you can get without choking, is, “Mom, I’m writing one hell of a scene at the moment and I’m a blubbery mess, so don’t worry about me.”
Of course she did, but I think she got it, too.
Writers, any scenes ever get to you when you wrote them? Readers, any one particular scene in something you’ve read nab at your heartstrings?
The Rankin Flats Observer 