Tag: creative writing

My Characters are Alive and Won’t Listen to What I Tell Them

Me when I start a writing session, ignorant of the defiance I am about to face Image by mohamed mahmouse hassan licensed under CC0
Me when I start a writing session, cocky and ignorant of the defiance I am about to face …
Image is licensed under CC0

So, I sit down, turn on my computer, pull up my story file, and start writing. All is well. What will I have my characters do today? Dialogue. Action. Characterization. Building a world from words. I’m king of this world. Everyone has to do what I say. Right?

Hang on. Why did Bob say that? I didn’t tell him to say that! Who does Bob think he is? I didn’t write him to be such a jerk!

And why is Tiffany suddenly a lot snarkier than I imagined her? And since when was Arnold so philosophical? I’m writing a thrilling adventure, not an excuse to sit around and contemplate our navels!

It’s happening again. My story is coming alive before my very eyes. And it does not recognize my authority.

It happens to the best of us. We outline our work, we prepare, we research, then we sit down and actually start writing – and it all gets away from us. Scenes don’t play out the way we planned them. Characters put words in our mouths, rather than the other way around. The story shifts and rumbles, it wakes up, and our creation becomes a living thing. IT’S ALIVE!

But how can this be? How can the imaginary have a will of its own?

Don’t look at me. All I know is that I had no idea Hermes liked tequila when I started writing A God Walks Up to the Bar.

They start talking to you, these characters. They start telling you their likes and dislikes, their hopes and fears. And when you acknowledge that they are real people, or as close to real as is possible, you reach an epiphany. Your story is better for it. Like the journalist who sits down for an interview with questions prepared and is sidetracked by the subject’s fascinating anecdotes, the population of your created universe reveals new and tantalizing quirks that flesh it out.

And lo, the author is revealed to not be master of his creations, but a mutt tailing behind their antics
fox writing with a quill pen by 50 Watts is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Still, it is somewhat bewildering when your story gets away from you. Even when your cast deigns to submit control back to you, you can’t always shake the feeling that you’re just along for the ride. You’re graciously being allowed to witness events as they unfold. A giddy experience, to be sure. I don’t entirely know what to expect when I begin a writing session. But doggone it, these folks need to have some respect! Stop pulling me off-track. We have a story to write! We have deadlines! I can’t be distracted by Alice’s unfolding tragic backstory and face the temptation of adding another 3,000 words! I’m writing genre fiction, not Les Misérables!

And so it goes. The writer lays the foundation, the characters give their input, I tell them what I want them to do, they push back, I push back, and somehow, out of this beautiful mess, a story is born.

I love being a writer.

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Sit Down, Shut up, and Do the Work

We’ve all been there. The nagging in the back of your mind telling you that you’ve skipped out long enough on finishing that one last chore. Time to write out that shopping list for the big party next weekend. Time to balance your budget. Time to write thank-you letters to everyone who sent you house-warming gifts. Time to do your taxes.

“But I don’t wanna!” you say. “I can do it tomorrow!”

Tomorrow! Tomorrow! There’s always tomorrow!

And tomorrow comes, and you say, “Naw, I don’t feel like it. I need to be in the right mood.”

Sit down, shut up, and do the work.

Knuckle down and buck up. Your taxes aren’t going to do themselves. Letter self-writing technology hasn’t been invented yet. And you must be lucky if you’re rich enough that you can’t balance your budget in one afternoon. Grab a pen, or power up the computer, and get cracking.

Little chores are like gnats. They hover about you, buzzing incessantly, annoying you with the fact of their incomplete existence. Leave too many of them unfinished, and you have a real swarm of tasks waiting for the inevitable. They have to get done.

“I don’t wanna!”

Yeah, but you gotta, don’t you?

Novels don’t write themselves, either. That great story that’s been brewing in your mind since you were twelve – nobody else is going to write it, are they?

But what about my favorite show coming on in ten minutes? What about that cool video game I just bought? What about a walk in the park on this great sunny day? What about …

Life is full of distractions. What you do with your time shows what you really value. Want to write a book? Or just want to pay off your taxes and then go to bed? Then do it. Don’t wait for the perfect moment. Those moments are rare and usually exaggerated by the now-successful author when he pens his autobiography. Hindsight makes everything look easy. There’s a direct correlation between effort put in and results achieved.

So it all comes down to this: Sit down, shut up, and do the work.

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On Inspiration

Where does inspiration come from? Where do the writers and artists of our time get their ideas? I can’t speak for others, but I get mine from everywhere imaginable. I’ve had weird dreams at 3 AM that stick with me and coalesce into workable material. Or maybe I have a particularly memorable conversation with a coworker that captures my attention. Or maybe I’m just going for a walk and a stray thought drifts into my brain. That happens a lot, actually.

There’s nothing in the world that has a stranglehold on the source of inspiration, and there is no “wrong” place to draw ideas from. In the end, all ideas have already been thought up, every story has already been told, and, as King Solomon says, “There is nothing new under the sun.” What there is, is taking a preexisting idea and molding it into a new shape, dressing it up in different clothes, and presenting it with your own unique flourish. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and we all imitate what we know to some degree. In a sense, artists and writers are scavengers, but ones who learn to refine their tastes. We look through all kinds of sources and draw an element here and a concept there to incorporate into our own works.

I’m not talking about plagiarism, mind you. Plagiarism is lifting somebody else’s hard work wholesale, changing a couple names, and claiming it as your own. That’s just a lie, and it’s lazy to boot. Inspiration is an influence, not a theft. It gives you a core to build your own story around and craft into something that is still very much your creation.

Inspiration is everywhere. What you see depends on who you are and how your mind works. Don’t be afraid to be inspired by something that others look down upon. Inspiration can come from the unlikeliest places. An old video game from the 90’s, a funny webcomic, or an action figure – these are just as valid as classic literature and theater. I’m not ashamed of it. I absorb as much as I can, from as many places as I can, and with these I fill a deep well. When writing a new story, I can dip into that well as I need, and pull up all sorts of surprising ideas.

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No Author is an Island

When I first started writing my book, I labored under a misconception. It was an easy mistake to make. I made an assumption about writing, one that, by all outward appearances, is apparently true. When you pick up a novel in the store, whose name do you see on it? The author’s. Maybe a few more names listed on the dedication page, a word of thanks to friends and family, but not much more. Oh, maybe the publishing company’s name, too, but that’s a business, not people. The writer is the one who gets the credit for the work.

As a self-publisher, I thought that writing was a one-person deal.

I am happy to say that I was very quickly proven wrong. Authors are not islands unto themselves, safely isolated from the hassle and responsibility of working with others, nor are they alone and dependent solely on their own skill and luck. Behind an author’s name are many, many other names, most of them willingly anonymous.

I wrote the book. Then I hired an editor to review my work. And I’ll contact an artist to create the book’s cover art. And then I’ll purchase my ISBN number and my business license so I can legally publish my work. And there is the commercial outlet through which my book is made available to the public. And yes, there are the friends and family who support me.

And let’s not forget the most important ones of all: the people who actually buy the book!

Even you, dear reader, are part of this process. Your very presence on this blog means that you’ve shown an interest in my work, maybe a passing interest, or maybe you’ll stick around for a while. Either way, you’re sharing in this journey alongside me. Interesting thought, isn’t it? No writer can truly say they made it by themselves. I find that oddly comforting. Writing isn’t lonely. It draws in folks who share a common interest and goal. It’s an unexpected side of the literary industry that I never expected, and I’m happy to have discovered it.

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So … What’s This All About?

It’s a question we all have from time to time. Why do we do the things we do? I’m not talking about jobs or chores. That’s just stuff that needs to be done. I’m talking about what we like to do. Why do you write? Why do you paint? Why do you fish? Why do you do yoga, or boxing or football?

It’s like the climber who was asked why he wanted to climb the mountain. “Because it’s there!” he replied. Well, while my answer isn’t quite as glib, I can sympathize with that sentiment.

Why am I pursuing a writing career?

I can’t claim to speak for everyone, but this is how I perceive it. The best way to describe it is an itch. I have to write. It’s a necessity. It’s a little nagging feeling in the back of my skull that can’t be ignored, and the alternative is … madness! Okay, okay, I exaggerate, but I’m not kidding when I say that the desire to create is very, very strong. I think everyone has a bit of it in themselves, whether they know it or not. We all want to look back at our lives and say, “Yeah, I did what I loved. I made something I’m proud of. I accomplished something that I value.” A 9-5 job may pay the bills and support a comfortable lifestyle, but that’s not everybody’s idea of fulfillment, is it?

When you have a good idea, a good story bubbling up inside you or a great masterpiece that you want to paint, or even if your dream is of the perfect fish to draw out of the lake or that Holy Grail of puzzles found in some hole-in-the-wall dollar store, then you have your goal. You pursue that goal. It makes life fun, don’t you think, having something to achieve? So, my goal is to publish good, entertaining stories. There you have it.

A tad melodramatic? Yeah, maybe. And if you’re thinking, “Gee, you kind of sound like you’re describing an addiction,” then don’t get me wrong. It’s not that kind of tyrannical need that bullies you into submission. It’s a passionate need, an act of joy. And hey, if I’m going to write, I might as well as write for an audience, yeah? Where’s the fun in creating if you can’t share it with others?

Which is where this website comes in. I’m just getting started , so things are a little spartan around here at the moment. But it’ll grow. I’ll publish stories and trace my writer’s journey through this blog. I hope you’ll tag along for the ride.