Calling Dr. Freud, or Novel Writing for Fun and Psychoanalysis

 Over the course of my novel-writing career, it has occurred to me to wonder about the psychology of those of us who create whole worlds on paper and populate them with characters who do more or less what we want them to do. Are we indulging in self-psychoanalysis without being aware of it? I've often noted that what readers say about my books tells me more about them than it does about the books. So I'd better admit that what I write says a lot about what's going on in my unfathomable (to me) brain.

I like to write historical novels. My first series consisted of historical mysteries set in rural Okalahoma at the turn of the twentieth century, featuring Alafair Tucker, a farm wife with a very large family. The historical novel I'm working on now stars a young Irish woman named Katy, who is working her way across America from New York to San Francisco in the 1870s and '80s. How I conjured up these characters I don't really know, for neither is like me in the least. And yet they obviously are me to some extent, since they both live in my head.

Both characters live a life I never could. I couldn't abide it. I don't have the slightest desire to romanticize their lives. It was tough, and so were they, in entirely different ways. I imbue Alafair with virtues I don't have. She's self assured and doesn't second-guess herself. She's kind and tolerant of human weakness. She takes care of everyone and is patient with the follies of others – which Katy is not. Alafair is tethered to her life. Katy is tethered to nothing, not even honesty, virtue, or morality if they don't further her goal – to survive at whatever cost.

I never set out to deliver a message or make a statement when I write. I just want to tell a ripping yarn. However, I do find myself wondering what Dr. Freud would say about my stories. Both Alafair and Katy are more successful at confronting their fears than I am. They're not afraid to fail. They stick themselves out there.

Both Alafair and Katy and all the other characters I create are much more than the sum of their parts. The great British mystery novelist Graham Greene said, "The moment comes when a character says or does something you hand't shout of. At that moment, he's alive and you leave it to him." I put Alafair and Katy on the page, but then they stood up and walked away, and now I just follow where they lead. What that tells me about myself, I do not know.