ANGELA BLOUNT

~Author of Once Upon a Road Trip~

by Angela Blount- 2013

It's been said that writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia. As one who walks the line between reality and imagination, I'm inclined to agree.

Like many authors, I "hear" voices in my head. It's okay, though--I'm the one who put them there. ^_^ I know not to let them come out to play in public, or allow them bait me into an argument at the dinner table. (By junior high I discovered that such things were not only not socially acceptable, but tended to get people around you talking about psychologists and medication.

Of course, I've always been aware that the characters in my mind aren't real. They're figments...the lively offspring of an overactive subconscious. But I also know they've grown up and are ready to be written about when I can empathize with them--slip on their personality like a glove and feel what they would be feeling in any given situation. I know it's time to tell their story when I wish they were real. (Or, as is the case with some of my villains, when I'm grateful they're NOT.) 

This all might sound a bit odd to those who aren't storytellers by nature. But this cohabitation with a cast of invented personalities is simply a part of my creative process. For the most part, I just set the stage--picture a scene and drop my selected characters into it. They interact, and I eavesdrop. But occasionally these non-existent people do, say, or react in some way that I don't understand. And so, I have to pull them out and start interviewing them. "Why would you do/say something like that?" "Why do you feel that way?" "What does that remind you of?"

Again, it's best not to employ this technique out loud or in public.

But for my latest book, Once Upon A Road Trip, I forced myself outside of this "crazy" comfort zone. Because in order to write an honest memoir, I had to trade made-up characters for memories. Instead of inventing the fictional, I revisited the actual. It's one of the most difficult things I've ever done.

I started out thinking creative non-fiction would be easy to write. All I had to do was record things that happened during an eventful period of my life, just as I remembered them. I quickly discovered that to convey any significance at all, I had to tap the depth and breadth of the emotions that accompanied those memories. That part required a certain degree of reliving the past. Some of those recollections I was glad to dwell in...but others were more of a traumatic replay of confusion, embarrassment, and pain I'd left behind along with my teenage angst. (Okay, so...MOST of the angst is behind me. >.>)

The worst part? There was absolutely no way to divert myself by dropping in a super-powered alien or crazed were-badger to lighten the mood.

I had to tell the truth for an entire book, and I had to do it in such a way that (hopefully) wouldn't put people to sleep. To do that I decided to write a majority of the book in 3rd person limited. Not something commonly done with memoirs, but not unheard of. It gave the story more of a fiction feel, while removing the maddening obstacle of me having to write "I...I...I..." all over the place.

Did it work? I'll let readers be the judge.

As for me...while I'm glad to have finally told my real life story, I'm also relieved to have my mental workings back on the people and places that only exist in my head. There's no telling what they've been up to while I was otherwise occupied.

Angela N. Blount is a Minnesota native, transplanted to the deep South-where she currently resides with her understanding husband, their two children, and a set of identity-confused cats. She is a former book reviewer for RT Book Reviews, a memoirist, freelance editor, sporadic poet, and webcomic artist.


In her spare time, Angela enjoys reading, coffee shop loitering, questionable attempts at horticulture, and all things geeky.