So the story I am working on is really stretching me.  Poetry is something that is a mostly foreign concept to me, but I am creating a story right now where the lead woman can only speak poetically — meaning, she only communicates through rhyme and symbolism.  The protagonist is unique in that he is one of the few characters that can fully understand everything she says, and even understands the symbolism.

What I love about this character is that I can foreshadow the entire story and put everything in the front of the novella.  She also isn’t bound by conventional rules of conversation, so she can express anything she wants whenever she wants.  Also, as she is pretty much the only true female in the story (there will be other women, just not as a major component, her role really symbolizes how often times women are right, but it takes the right kind of man listening in the right kind of way to really understand them.

I haven’t decided yet on love scenes, and whether or not to have them as part of this story.  I can see the two main’s romantically involved, but I am trying to relate it to how it improves or impedes communication.  Does it engender closeness between a man and a woman?  Or does sex get in the way of honest communication?  I believe that when a relationship is healthy, physical intimacy does improve how we communicate with our partner.  When a relationship is unhealthy sex can compromise honest communication as a partner then may feel like they need to compromise their feelings/desires/wants/needs for their partner’s happiness.  We can become blind to flaws and problems because we see what we want to see and rationalize the difference.

My story would be a lot less complicated without factoring sex into it, but there might be no way to avoid it if the characters demand it.  It is funny, but that is the key.  There are times when I write and the scene just appears before me and I hear the voices speaking to me.  I write what happens as it happens and I can barely control the direction.  These people in my head usually end up dictating what happens, and no matter how I plan I just see it happen.  My problem is that I feel like an artist that can see something to sketch or draw, but cannot remember how to hold a pencil to make the line straight.

Practice, I must.