Handing the Wheel Over to Your Characters
Hello again everybody, it has been one helluva lazy day. Woke up later than usual, around 9, and didn't get out of bed until past 10. I did manage to copy down the cold open of a script I wrote in my notebook the other day while I lounged poolside. I first thought of it as a kind of badass Gladiator TV show, but now I'm getting the feeling that maybe it would do better as a full-length picture. It's funny how stories speak to writers like that. You start one way, thinking you know where it's all leading (and you should know where the story's going to go. I mean, you are the writer aren't you?), but then the story decides that it's done taking orders and wants to drive itself. In my experience, what little I have, when a story takes the wheel the best thing to do as a writer is hold on tight and write down everything you pass along the way.
Most people find it hard to understand that logic. That sometimes writers don't know how they're story is going to end, or once it's done, they have difficulty remembering the simplest details. I know that's how I was, and still am, when asked about my novel, The Days After. I have plenty of examples of someone in my family asking about a certain character or event from the story, and I can't give them a straight answer because I can't remember myself. I know a lot of writers like to plot out their entire story before typing one word, and that's a great and efficient method of writing that I wish I had. I've given it a try, but for some reason it ruins the flow of momentum for me because while writing one plot point, all I can think about is how to connect to the next. For me, and some others, it's more fun to have no idea where a story is going. It puts you into the same seat as the future reader.
I think about it like watching a movie when I write, or like I'm a kind of ghost watching each scene take place around me. I place the setting and the characters, and from their I just sit and wait as the characters do what they do best. React to their surroundings. It brings out more realistic characters that way. If I don't believe what the characters say or do, then I know that the readers won't. And I'm very critical with characters, so I can trust my judgement.
If anyone reading this feels risky enough to take any advice I may give on this blog, then let this be an easy toe-in-the-water. A good way to keep yourself from getting writer's block is to just sit back and let your character's come to life. Don't put what you would do in their heads. Understand who you created, and let those traits react to the situation. Usually, the first thing you see them do is the right response. Write that down, and move on. You can always go back and cut it out later, but if you want to get whatever you're writing finished, then finish it. Thanks for reading.
Most people find it hard to understand that logic. That sometimes writers don't know how they're story is going to end, or once it's done, they have difficulty remembering the simplest details. I know that's how I was, and still am, when asked about my novel, The Days After. I have plenty of examples of someone in my family asking about a certain character or event from the story, and I can't give them a straight answer because I can't remember myself. I know a lot of writers like to plot out their entire story before typing one word, and that's a great and efficient method of writing that I wish I had. I've given it a try, but for some reason it ruins the flow of momentum for me because while writing one plot point, all I can think about is how to connect to the next. For me, and some others, it's more fun to have no idea where a story is going. It puts you into the same seat as the future reader.
I think about it like watching a movie when I write, or like I'm a kind of ghost watching each scene take place around me. I place the setting and the characters, and from their I just sit and wait as the characters do what they do best. React to their surroundings. It brings out more realistic characters that way. If I don't believe what the characters say or do, then I know that the readers won't. And I'm very critical with characters, so I can trust my judgement.
If anyone reading this feels risky enough to take any advice I may give on this blog, then let this be an easy toe-in-the-water. A good way to keep yourself from getting writer's block is to just sit back and let your character's come to life. Don't put what you would do in their heads. Understand who you created, and let those traits react to the situation. Usually, the first thing you see them do is the right response. Write that down, and move on. You can always go back and cut it out later, but if you want to get whatever you're writing finished, then finish it. Thanks for reading.
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