The Not-So-Secret Life of Rebecca Louise

On the joys of drawing a character who lives in your head

Hello! It’s been a while!

We took a family vacation and went overseas for the first time in years. Lots of things happened, among them: We stayed in a haunted castle, went to a beautiful wedding, swam in a glacial lake, and saw Icelandic horses. You will probably hear more about those things in later posts—I’m still processing all of them. But I did do a fair amount of watercoloring, especially of Rebecca Louise, so that’s what I’m sharing today.

You’ve met Rebecca Louise in previous posts—but for those of you who are new, she is a character who lives in my head and likes to get very dramatic. She dresses like a Victorian woman and lives in a turret. Most of the time she drifts around, looking out the window, wondering which of her lovers she should write to…

Bertram? Reginald? Jim, or Caroline….

…or engaging in other favorite pastimes: pining for the sea, giving lectures on being dreadful at gardening, or reading Tarot cards with her cat.

Well, Kitty, you’ve done it again! The Queen of Wands! My FAVORITE!

Every so often something sets her off and she’ll get up from her divan and say something to people she loves, like, “This family is KILLING me! I’m taking to my BED for SIX MONTHS!”

(She may have said this while we were on vacation. Only I think it was preceded by, “OKAY, OKAY, I HEARD YOU! I’ve done everything wrong for your ENTIRE childhood!)

For example, a response to my husband over something, I don’t even know what:

And sometimes she just loses it completely.

Some triggers for this might be:

—She’s been gone for three days and no one has gone through their clothes to pick which ones to send to the Salvation Army like she asked them to

—Picking up a newspaper

—Being told to calm down

—Horrible stories about the way human activity and climate change is hurting animals, people, and the ocean.

—Someone cut down a tree

I love Rebecca Louise because she means business. There is no ignoring her. There is no telling her to be different. When she takes to her bed, she takes to her BED. You can’t convince her that she needs to be anything other than who she is. You will never hear her say, “Too much drama.” She will meet your drama and raise you twenty with pleasure!

I also love her confidence. Once, at one of my husband’s high school reunions she challenged someone to an arm wrestling match. He said he knew Kung Fu, and she said that was okay, she was the arm wrestling champion of the English Department in graduate school. (!) She did not win, which didn’t bother her at all. She’ll still tell anyone who asks or doesn’t that she has very strong arms.

She is usually placated by coffee, sweets, and people telling her she’s brilliant.

Or me telling her she’s brilliant. That’s usually her fastest way home.

Here is an art challenge if you want it: Write or draw your favorite character that lives in your head. Give it a voice and many outfits and tell me all about it.

Or if you want to draw one with me, come to my next Creative Practice Workshop, which will be on Saturday July 27th at 11:30 am.

We will write or draw our characters, give them a loud, full, wonderful voice, and put them in a very short story.

I love our creative practice sessions (also sometimes called Writing Sprints). The group is fantastic and talented and it’s a joy to write and draw together. It’s also a great way to get your butt in the chair and make something in a very short time.

This workshop is free for paid subscribers. If you’d like to try it out with low commitment, you can subscribe for one month ($6) and see if you like it.

Sign up below: