GtPGKogPYT4p61R1biicqBXsUzo" /> Google+ P.I. Barrington blog tour guest post + giveaway | I Smell Sheep

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

P.I. Barrington blog tour guest post + giveaway

Today we are handing the blog over to author P.I. Barrington. She is going to tell us what she finds difficult to write about. We are just one stop on her Isadora Daystar book tour. Be sure to check out the other stops listed at the bottom of this post.

When drug addled assassin Isadora DayStar finally snags a major interplanetary killing job, she thinks it will both support her habit and revise her status as the laughingstock of her profession. Instead, she embarks on a journey that brings her face to face with her tortured past.

Before I get into the nuts and bolts of writing, I'd like to thank you Sharon for allowing me to join you!
Most authors have areas that they find difficult to write except perhaps Stephen King whose longest stretch of writer's block can't be more than fifteen seconds, lol! Joking aside I think the hardest part of writing for me is when I have a character that is debased in some way. Not all my characters are debased, but many times I have to take them to places they and I don’t want them to go. Isadora DayStar is the ultimate example of that in that she's a drug addicted ex-military prostitute when she can't succeed at assassin jobs. It almost sounds comical but it's the furthest thing from that. At the basis of her downward spiraling life is a tremendous amount of guilt—which I find is one of if not the greatest motivator for people's behavior good or bad—and she tries to bury it by ironically using the same drug that caused the guilt in the first place. To that end, she has to engage in any and all behavior that will get her that drug, anything to feed the addiction that keeps the guilt at bay and that includes prostitution of the most awful kind. Those scenes are hard to write but even harder to think about in the movie in my head.
I think that the way I have to work through those scenes is a sort of method acting, you have to get into that character's head; what she (or he) feels especially desperation, fear or utter humiliation in Isadora's case. It's almost a cycle: the more you get into her head, the worse it is to write it all out. Yet you can't shy away from it—the story has no point otherwise. Sometimes you can feel the humiliation even as you write or as the scene develops in your brain. You can hear the dialogue and how it's being said, the little quirks as the character speaks or acts. But I'm not talking about graphic details of the acts of prostitution—I'm talking about something worse: shame. For me as an author, it's pretty much all about psychology—the things that everyone feels or does; good bad or ugly. Everyone feels shame or humiliation in their lives—it's something that the readers know and can identify with character because they know what it feels like. Those real emotions, the real inner conflicts are the true story. To be true to your work you still have to sit down and write it all out; it's kind of cathartic. Once you get the hardest part done, it usually becomes your favorite because it usually is the best part of your writing—the most intense and effective for your reader as well as yourself. It's difficult to write those scenes—sometimes extremely difficult—but I think that's where your best writing comes from—the hard part.


Finding P.I. Barrington


***GIVE AWAY***
You can win an ecopy of Isadora Daystar!

1. Leave your contact info
2. Tell us which space ship you would like to hitch a ride on? (ex. Enterprise, Serenity, Millennium Falcon...)
Contest ends: April 14 at midnight

Tour Schedule
March 31 http://closeencounterswiththenightkind.blogspot.com

6 comments:

  1. The Heart of Gold from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is my choice; it's awesome! What's better than a spaceship that can go anywhere, no matter how improbable!
    beckyhjohnson79 [at] yahoo . com . au

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  2. Don't know if I'd call it a spaceship exactly, but I'd want to hop a ride on the Gundam Deathscythe, thing is kickass :)

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  3. I think I would like to ride on the Battle star Galactica.
    debby236 at gmail dot com

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  4. I'd like a ride on the Millennium Falcon.

    bn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  5. Oh I would definitely love to be on the Enterprise. I was able to visit Las Vegas quite a few years ago when they had the Star Trek Experience at one of the hotels and have to say it was a treat of a lifetime (I came darn close to being assimilated) Besides I always wanted to say "beam me up Scotty" and have it happen (not just in my head LOL). Thank you for sharing with us today. I so admire the gift of a writer and appreciate the hard work and the sharing you do to bring me joy :)
    dz59001[at]gmail[dot]com

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  6. This contest is closed now, thanks to everyone who commented. The winner is Bex! I have sent you an email :)

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