Who is Amelia? I have spent so much time thinking about her, but I find that writing a character means forgetting everything you know. You have to let them tell you who they are. Amelia is direct, forceful, opinionated, a bit of a know it all, she's also impulsive, selfish, stubborn, adventurous, and willing. When she comes back to a world she's never even dreamed might exist, she finds all of it compelling. Think about returning forty three years on. Think what it would be like for you? Can we even keep up with Facebook and Twitter? That's what, five years of our lives at most? She has to make sense of everything, and she has to decide whether to embrace it or fear it. Everything in her, everything that is her, tells her to embrace it. To inhale it. To be a part of this for as long as she can. To be amazed, and assert herself, and live.
I think what most fascinates me about her, of course in my version, is her desire to live. And to live fully. It's a lesson I hope to learn. But one my character has, then again she is Amelia.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The desire to live- and to live fully- is love of life, despite all its turmoil. I also share this longing to live with abandon, unconstrained by fear or timidity. Amelia was so bold- ready to fly across the ocean- saying yes to adventure. Reading your blog and thinking about Amelia is waking up in me some of that contagious sense of leaping into life with both feet.
ReplyDeleteYou know, it's odd isn't it? I've been itching to travel more and more. And have been doing it too. Just getting away and seeing things . . . and living!
ReplyDeleteExcellent! Amelia is having a good influence on you, and now on me as well...
ReplyDeleteThe reason I first became interested (obsessed, really) in learning to fly and becoming a pilot is that 23 years ago I read "Last Flight" and was astounded by her articulate feminism. In statements like "Women must try to do things as men have tried" she was saying exactly what I needed to hear at that stage of my life.
ReplyDeleteAnd I remember when I first read about her in middle school and then had to read everything there was about her. When I first thought of writing this book, I thought of Amelia and what she meant to me then, but I had no idea that she'd end up meaning even more to me now. Funny, the more I read things she wrote or said, the more impressive I find her.
ReplyDelete