Are fiction writers really channels from another dimension?

[TimRees]

Everyone in all walks of life have strong opinions. As authors we get to express our opinions to a readership, or that is the aim.

But entertainment has to take priority. In my view entertainment makes difficult subject matter more digestible., however, the reason I'm writing the story is to shine a spotlight on some form of perceived prejudice or injustice. I set the stage and the stage will reflect a particular perspective and then I allow the characters to play out the drama. If I have decided a thriller is the best genre with which to tell the story, then I will have an idea of plot twists and turns and the ending, but I write with a very light touch. I will even have scenes and dialogue prepared in many handwritten notes, but invariably find everything changes as the characters express themselves. It is for this reason I find writing fiction so exciting - through the characters I get to experience perspectives I'd missed or hadn't considered.

Every novel I've written has ended differently to what I had planned.

The process for me, as the author, is about losing control, standing back and allowing the characters to tell their story. It is like channelling life, people, a world, from another dimension. Is it the same for you?

 

[Pamela Jo]

From the Greeks there has been the idea of the muses. The divine spark.

It is a mystery. Like you I start off with an ending in mind but somehow it changes. And boy I can go back and see when I was uninspired. There is no life on the page.

The only comparison I can make is spinning dross into gold. Rumpelstiltskin always fascinated me. You have the ability to do that and all you can think to do is go around taking people's babies? But then what I want to do with my gold spun dross is take some poor kids allowance money so ...

I've only once had that experience where a character came out of nowhere introduced themselves and hijacked the story. I didnt believe it before. It was a very weird experience.

 

[SusanT]

Yes! This sounds so familiar. I do sometimes wonder who is writing the story because, very occasionally, there is an amazing tie up of things I had not planned perfectly aligning.

 

[izi 出久]

Absolutely. And a few times I've written something that I completely didn't understand, only for 50k words later to finally see more of the picture. Those instances are a bit uncanny for me. But in work and writing and life I see myself as a reed in the ocean, which will bend rather than break under the force of the tide.

 

[tylermoney]

I've only recently started my "creative" writing practice, yet I've already discovered this feeling you are all describing. My issue is, when I stop, I tend to get overwhelmed at the breadth of some of what I am working on. Meaning. I have 65 pages for a story, and that's more than I have ever put down towards a single written piece, and it's not really even close to being finished—but also, I am not entirely sure how I got to the 65 pages in the first place.

 

[TimRees]

I've only recently started my "creative" writing practice, yet I've already discovered this feeling you are all describing. My issue is, when I stop, I tend to get overwhelmed at the breadth of some of what I am working on. Meaning. I have 65 pages for a story, and that's more than I have ever put down towards a single written piece, and it's not really even close to being finished—but also, I am not entirely sure how I got to the 65 pages in the first place.

Hi @tylermoney Writing is a learning curve. In my first novel, the characters took over and the story ended on 140,000 words. Not a problem at that time and I secured the services of an agent with my first submission having gone to the expense of buying a Writers & Artists Year Book. My second novel came in at 170,000 and my agent said I had to cut 50,000 words. Suddenly word count was a huge issue.

You're learning that letting the characters off the leash means the story will naturally broaden and it is the way I love to write. On the first two novels I constantly found myself going back and stitching in subplots/threads to the story because a character had said or done something that changed something else. I love that process.

With every novel I've written, I've started out with an idea for an ending, but that has invariably changed and now i am almost surprised when I reach the end. I think, 'Wow! That's it. Perfect. All knots tied...' Or, with one novel, I arrived at the perfect cliff hanger.

But I am now very aware of word count and to keep a novel below a 100,000 words (for a debut novelist). It is a pain and I don't go back to stitch in a subplot and don't allow the character such a free rein. I have considered going back to writing stories that broaden out naturally to well over 100,000 words and only concerning myself with self-publishing. We'll see. I have that option. The series I'm working on now are naturally shorter novels anyway and my young main character, Anu, is living a pretty linear existence. It is a SciFi, so as her universe grows bigger, I expect the novels will also.

But in conclusion, I say go with the character. When the character lives on the page for you, the character will live on the page for the reader. When the character in my first novel turned to me and said, 'Shut up and keep up.' I found myself struggling to keep up. Nowadays, when a character turns to me and tells me to keep up I have total confidence and self belief I can.

First you need to trust your characters...