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Dec. 15th, 2009 12:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lenora_roseOkay, that was both weird and REALLY cool.
Earlier today, I met someone who looks exactly like my character Dave Jolicoeur from Bird of Dusk. Exactly, as in, I really wanted to ask his name, and wouldn't have blinked if it was not only David, but the FRENCH pronunciation of David. Exactly as in, the perfect mix of "hey, he's handsome" and the exact right catalogue of rough features that suggest he shouldn't be. The exact lovely dark eyes in the middle. The exact crisp utter black of the hair that's the other wonderful feature. The right fine deep voice with the little thrum.
The one thing even slightly off was that he was taller than I envisioned. And that mostly made me think, "I wrote him too short."
I have had people remind me of characters in hints and starts, the same way you can meet people who remind you, a little or a lot, of a real-world friend or sibling. (When I don't consciously write the first-draft characters' descriptions off real people in the first place). I've had encounters in buses and restaurants that firmed up the descriptions of people whose physical appearance was still in flux (And one of those last caused me to change the colour of the people of an entire fictional continent; which I figure is all to the good, as I have way more than enough white protagonists.)
But even that last encounter wasn't like this; I've never had such a "walked out of the book" match. So much so that I wanted to ask if I could take a few pictures (And a sound and motion recording would have been even better), even though I encountered him in circumstances where that would be even more inappropriate than usual.
Of course, this is not helping with the whole writing thing; I'm off Bird of Dusk to at least the end of January (Moreso as I also have some reading I wanted to do before that edit), even if the Serpent Prince is back to dragging its feet. And it puts the wrong story in my brain. (I forced out a couple words on Serpent yesterday then forced more progress in writing in general by typing in a scene from another project entirely that's been mouldering in one of my paper notebooks)
Still, it kind of made me weirdly happy.
(And for those who might wonder, I am fully aware that this man has his own personality and attitudes. I know better than to assume I know him because of who else he looks like, and I was quite capable of treating him as such. (Those times I've met two unrelated people who bore an uncanny resemblance to one another, they did NOT have like personalities. In one case, snarky as it sounds, my reaction really was 'thank god', as the person the new-met man resembled was an ex.) )
Earlier today, I met someone who looks exactly like my character Dave Jolicoeur from Bird of Dusk. Exactly, as in, I really wanted to ask his name, and wouldn't have blinked if it was not only David, but the FRENCH pronunciation of David. Exactly as in, the perfect mix of "hey, he's handsome" and the exact right catalogue of rough features that suggest he shouldn't be. The exact lovely dark eyes in the middle. The exact crisp utter black of the hair that's the other wonderful feature. The right fine deep voice with the little thrum.
The one thing even slightly off was that he was taller than I envisioned. And that mostly made me think, "I wrote him too short."
I have had people remind me of characters in hints and starts, the same way you can meet people who remind you, a little or a lot, of a real-world friend or sibling. (When I don't consciously write the first-draft characters' descriptions off real people in the first place). I've had encounters in buses and restaurants that firmed up the descriptions of people whose physical appearance was still in flux (And one of those last caused me to change the colour of the people of an entire fictional continent; which I figure is all to the good, as I have way more than enough white protagonists.)
But even that last encounter wasn't like this; I've never had such a "walked out of the book" match. So much so that I wanted to ask if I could take a few pictures (And a sound and motion recording would have been even better), even though I encountered him in circumstances where that would be even more inappropriate than usual.
Of course, this is not helping with the whole writing thing; I'm off Bird of Dusk to at least the end of January (Moreso as I also have some reading I wanted to do before that edit), even if the Serpent Prince is back to dragging its feet. And it puts the wrong story in my brain. (I forced out a couple words on Serpent yesterday then forced more progress in writing in general by typing in a scene from another project entirely that's been mouldering in one of my paper notebooks)
Still, it kind of made me weirdly happy.
(And for those who might wonder, I am fully aware that this man has his own personality and attitudes. I know better than to assume I know him because of who else he looks like, and I was quite capable of treating him as such. (Those times I've met two unrelated people who bore an uncanny resemblance to one another, they did NOT have like personalities. In one case, snarky as it sounds, my reaction really was 'thank god', as the person the new-met man resembled was an ex.) )
