Comments on: doing it all wrong

By: Dana

Dana — Tue, 20 Apr 2004 17:34:56 +0000

A writer of my acquaintence has three characters with which he is famously associated. There are a plethora of other characters in his book, but the main three are the ones that have been discussed and he states that the three of them are with him all the time. I spoke with him on the phone one night and he said that yes, the three of them are standing in the room watching him. They correct him and fight with him and ultimately write their own stories I guess.

He’s not a head case, he’s a sincere and gifted writer. He just sees people we don’t.

By: Tam

Tam — Tue, 20 Apr 2004 15:17:29 +0000

When I was NaNo’ing, I had the general idea for the story but not much else. As I started to write it the characters really did come alive to the point where I was having arguments with them. (Seriously, read my NaNo blog entries. I got really skitzo there for a bit.)

Like you, I’ve always had voices in my head. I’d just never had them reveal themselves until NaNo.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Tue, 20 Apr 2004 12:45:19 +0000

It’s ok to have the characters dictate how the story develops; That’s why you put the characters in the story in the first place, because you want the story to flow a certain way. It’s like putting rocks in a stream to make it babble, gurgle, or even redirect the water in a certain way. We all have stories in us, it’s people like you who know how to arrange them so they’re more attractive and interesting.

Remember, if the charaters ARE speaking to you, it’s only because you gave them their voice in the first place.