Remember earlier when I said the story is like I put a DVD in and can zip around it? Well when I’m writing I often use this ‘feature’ of my brain so I know what to write next. Sometimes it even surprises me because I didn’t see something coming and sometimes I don’t even know my own characters.
Characters are terribly difficult creatures to work with. One might think ‘well he’s making them up so they do what he says..’ To a point that’s true. But sometimes you hae one of these characters that just doesn’t follow the rules, doesn’t pay attention to what you want and is just downright beligerent.
I’m not really struggling with one of those but I do have a character who, no matter how hard I think or how much of this section of the story I watch, simple won’t do much of anything. That was until early Wednesday morning when I was writing before going to sleep (I sleep 4am to 10am regularly). Suddenly the character in question sort of sprang to life and that suddenly presented me with a conundrum. I suddenly wasn’t sure of their motivation. Even more surprisingly it made me question the motivation of one of the other characters.
Ding! I’ve got a plot twist! What I hadn’t realized was happening was just that. The motivations weren’t clear to me because I didn’t look deep enough. Once I did I realized the bastards were toying with me. Making me think one thing when a completely other thing was true. So now I know where they’re headed and why.
I’m also a little excited because a major plot event is getting ready to unfold and it always makes me heady with it all. I’ve laid all the foundations except for the keystone of this plot event which I will drop into place, maybe tonight yet, and let the story rush forth into…the next chapter 😉 Oddly I didn’t know what the keystone was, until the characters gave me the wake up call. That was when I saw the true keystone and what was going on.
See, sometimes the story and characters even surprise the author when they’re writing. Hopefully they’ll also surprise the reader. There’s nothing I like more than watching a film or reading something and WHAM something happens and I think “Shit! I didn’t see THAT coming!”
Hopefully many of you will be saying that someday while reading one of my stories or books.