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| Meet The Author |
I’ve been writing for a long time (never mind exactly how long) but I’d never experienced what my sister has aptly named “The Virgin Writer Effect” until a few years ago. It’s what happens when your story swallows you whole, consumes you, obsesses you, changes your world forever, chews you up then spits you out the other side.
Not exactly a pleasant thing. But it’s a rite of passage.
I spent twelve weeks writing Inner Demons, a novel set back in my old stomping grounds – Acadia University – where the main character lives in the haunted farmhouse I once lived in. Even the old lady ghost managed to find her way into the story. I can hear leaves crunching underfoot as I walk across autumn campus grounds, smell the tang of Bay of Fundy water, see the fireworks display of the Northern Lights flashing across the night sky from the top of University Drive.
But what happens when you bring so many real elements into a work of fiction? For me, it makes it impossible to have perspective toward the story itself. I cannot separate what’s on the page from what’s in my mind. Too close, too personal. I poured out everything I had into this story, believing it was going to end up in that storage box in the closet with the rest of my writing. I didn’t hold anything back – no inhibitions – certain that no one was ever going to read it.
After I finished writing the book, I missed the intimacy of the characters, missed having them in my head. I’d cheered for them, wept for them, plotted out their lives with great care. I felt empty, alone. Drifting. I wanted that powerful feeling back – that Virgin Writer Effect.
I’ve written several other novels since then, but haven’t lost myself inside a story like I did with Inner Demons. Maybe it’s something you only get to experience once.