Anne Leclaire: Writing as Opera

--> HALLIE EPHRON: I've read a ton of books, and occasionally one really sticks with you. I met Anne LeClaire (I think it was at a writer's conference on Cape Cod) at least ten years ago. She was so smart and engaging, generous and warm that I immediately read her book, Leaving Eden. I fell in love with young Tallie and her dreams about winning a beauty contest and making it big.

Many years and a bunch of novels later, Anne wrote Silence, a personal memoir about her habit of practicing silence for 24 hours, once each month. Again, I am in awe. Because the idea of keeping my mouth shut for 24 minutes, never mind 24 hours, is daunting.

Now Anne has switched gears again. I'm happy to say she's written one terrific mystery novel, The Halo Effect. The main character is a father, determined to wreak vengeance upon the person who murdered his daughter. 

It's a riveting story with unexpected twists. One of the most brilliant things about it is the way Anne effortless shifts from the voice of one narrator to another. A grief stricken father one minute. A confused, flaky, hormone-driven adolescent girl the next. A priest the next. How do you do that? 

And by the way, just published it's an Amazon #1 Bestseller!

Here are her insights on the about capturing a character's voice.

ANNE LECLAIRE: Years ago, while on a writing residency at The Virginia Center for Creative Arts, I was in early stages of writing a book with two central characters set in two different time periods and geographic locations. Shoe was a young farm girl in depression era Ohio and Soleil was a librarian in her mid-thirties who lived in contemporary Boston. Their story was told in alternating chapters.

The VCCA is an artist colony in Amherst, Virginia where artists, poets, painters, sculptors, novelists, photographers and composers are granted residencies in which to work without the obligations and responsibilities of daily life. Each resident is given a room in the residency hall, a separate studio in the studio barn, and three prepared meals each day. It is so ideal that my husband always flies down at the conclusion of my residency to drive home with me. I think he’s kidding when he says it’s to make sure I come home.

One afternoon at the end of a particularly difficult day in the studio, I headed into the dining hall, still struggling with the problems I faced. Each time I began a new chapter it was taking me a long time to switch to the alternating voice and mood and era. A composer from Pennsylvania named Richard Wagner, (his real name!) asked how the day had gone and I briefly described the difficulties I was having with switching back and forth between chapters.

He thought for a second and said, “Have you ever thought of having theme music for your characters?” He told me that in opera each main character has a musical motif that is woven into the score each time they appear. He asked for a bit of information about my characters and then suggested I find dulcimer music for Shoe and Bonne Raitt for Soleil. The next morning he surprised me by handing me a tape he’d made for me the night before.

For the next four weeks of the residency, as part of each day’s writing preparation, I’d start by playing the music for my character. I was amazed at how it helped ease me into the work. Since then, with each book, I have selected pieces of music that for me hold the essence of the characters.

Often we are asked what actors we see playing the characters if our books were made into movies. I never imagine actors as the people I’m creating, but I can tell you what music represents them, whether jazz, classical, ragtime, blues, or pop.

Do you listen to music while you are writing? Or do you find it distracting?

If you listen to music, does it change depending on the story?

What music would you chose for the motifs of your characters?

Is there a tool you find useful to slip into various characters?

Do you write with an actor in mind who you imagine as playing your character in a film? 

THE HALO EFFECT by Anne Leclaire
It was supposed to be a typical October evening for renowned portrait artist Will Light. Over dinner of lamb tagine, his wife, Sophie, would share news about chorus rehearsals for the upcoming holiday concert, and their teenage daughter, Lucy, would chatter about French club and field hockey. Only Lucy never came home. Her body was found, days later, in the woods.

The Eastern Seaboard town of Port Fortune used to be Will’s comfort. Now, there’s no safe harbor for him. Not even when Father Gervase asks Will to paint portraits of saints for the new cathedral. Using the townspeople as models, Will sees in each face only a mask of the darkness of evil. And he just might be painting his daughter’s killer.