There’s a method to the madness of my writing, I’m noticing. When I first start, I’m on fire. I’ve got enough stories to work on that if I’m not enthused (read, “obsessed and chomping at the bit”) I’m not going to work on that piece, I’ll find something else.
So there I go. I’m on fire, I’ve got these awesome scenes in my head, this alluring character pulling me on…so I write frantically till I run out of steam. This is the point where I used to drop it, until I had a better idea what I was doing. Guess how often that inspiration struck?
Yeah.
Now I stop and draw a map. *grin* Yes, from deep in unknown territory, I draw a map. And then I push forward again. Steadily, for oh, maybe another 60% of the book, where I got through 20% in the first mad scramble. Then I stall again. Stop, re-write my elements, hem, haw, wonder what the heck I thought I was doing–then my muses gather and the ideas and fingers fly, and we slide into home whooping with joy at finishing.
Or something like that.
I did buy that Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing a Novel (Tom Monteleone, Penguin Group). I’m more than halfway through, and so far there isn’t much I didn’t know. But there have certainly been enough bits to make it worth my time and money. If nothing else, I know the words for things I’ve always tried to do, just because it “felt right.” And when I know the words, I can be more conscious of when and how I’m doing whatever.
But I have to disagree with the author’s assertion that anyone who says the characters “took off” with their story is…well, I can’t recall what he said, and I’m not going looking for it. He didn’t buy it, though. And I can see his point, on the one hand. It isn’t the characters, it’s my vision of who they are, that changes. And who they are, changes everything. A book about a calm, resigned Marine who just lost the family she cared about, would be a far, FAR cry from the book I ended up with, where “calm” describes Eve only when knocked unconscious, and “resigned” is what everyone else is (to losing fights with her.)
Really, though, unless I’m talking to him or another writer, it’s a LOT easier just to say my characters ran off with my story. I don’t care how you look at it, as long as I end up with a better book. And when I shut up and let my people lead–I always do.