Makeovers

Last night I posted chapter seven of 'Vampire Kiss'. The chapter was called 'Fleshing Her Out'. In essence, the chapter describes a makeover. By now, I've clued in that that is a theme in most of my writing and I got a couple comments on this since yesterday. So why do I do this? Well, there a few reasons.

One of the biggest ones is that I make myself over once every two or three years. Sometimes more often than that, depending on how life is treating me. I don't know why I'm not a consistent person (I've taken to referring to myself as capricious). In my mid-teens I was a goth where I could be seen reading 'The Vampire Lestat' in Religious Studies. In my later teens I was seriously Miss Community Spirit and I had several volunteer gigs going on at once. I know. How did that transition happen? Then I went to college - different again. Then I graduated college and went to work - different again. Now I am what I am, and I'm probably different two or three times again.

But the most compelling makeover story of all was when I was twelve. I went through all my toys and put them all in boxes and took them all down to the basement. I've probably talked about this more than once, but it was a really big moment in my life. I made the decision when I was twelve that I wasn't going to be a baby anymore and I've tried hard to be responsible ever since (R-E-S-P-O-N-S-I-B-L-E not R-E-A-S-O-N-A-B-L-E - please take note). When I got to my teens, I made over two girls by raiding their closets and basically informing them that they were never allowed to wear Winnie the Pooh or Mickey Mouse again as long as they lived.

I made over guys, too. There was one guy who was super popular in my grade and I told him exactly how to do his hair so that he would look undeniably sexy. He kept his hair like that for the next three years, even though I wasn't popular and my opinion didn't matter, but dang it - I knew what I was talking about. And I used to give guys touch-ups all the time. AND - I hardly ever take my man shopping for his own clothes. I know his style. I know what he likes wearing, what accentuates his best parts, and I actually take the time to make sure it doesn't cost a million dollars.

Makeovers are an interest of mine. That's reason number one.

Reason number two is probably something more like, if I don't explain that Hitomi has a bit of a transition I can't claim her as my own and do what I want with her. And I don't think she had to change much in my Escaflowne trilogy. I don't think I took her on a notable shopping spree then that involved a serious change in style.

Reason number three - is that I want everyone to know that changing your outsides DOES impact your insides, but probably not the way you want it to. You want to change? You have to change your soul and not your style.

So, now that I got that out of my system, I feel much better.