I was writing along splendidly on the WIP and BAM, my heroine said something that stopped me cold. Could that have happened? She said she remembered riding a train as a child. Why did she say this? I don't know. But now that she did, I have to pull out my over-sized book on the history of North American trains to see where trains ran when she was a child. And then do these dates and areas work with the time line I had already set up?
Do your characters do that? Say something that completely sets you back and makes you wonder where the heck it came from? My first reaction was to hit the delete key - then I thought, no let's see where this is going. What can I do with this information? Other than have to do more research. If I find through the research it isn’t possible, then I'll take the sentence out. But it could be something that will make her backstory more intriguing. And make the reader wonder how much she is keeping from the hero. Hmm… is she also keeping something from me?
How often do your characters take over the story, or do they really? Are you molding them like Claymation figures? Making them do your bidding or are you following along cleaning up after them to make the story work?
8 comments:
Paty--
Neat blog. You asked:
"--do your bidding or are you following along cleaning up after them to make the story work?"
Like you, I do some of each. I don't know why characters say certain things either. Rascals. But once they do, you're right, you have o decide if it will work or not. My tendency is to do what you are doing--high speed internet sure make this easier--and see what happens. I'll take it out if I have to. And like you said, sometimes those little comments from the ether provide tie ins down the road. Who knows what she saw on that train? Who knows how it might come in handy?
Besides, once she says it, it becomes part of her past and who she is and you kind of like to respect that, right?
Weird.
Alice
Paty--Where did the title of your blog come from?
Alice
As in did I want to duct tape my character's mouth shut or stuff a sock in it so she wouldn't say things I didn't know. LOL
I'm learning way more than I had planned to learn about transportation in Oregon in the 1860's and 70's!
Paty, I think it's great. And if what she told you doesn't pan out later in the story, you can easily delete it.
Something similar happened in my women's action adventure story, but the characters didn't say it, they did it. It's a reality show premise and the 8 contestants are making their way to base camp on a deserted island off the coast of Yemen. The tv crew is supposed to waiting there for them, but when they arrive, the camp is empty. WTF? I didn't see that coming, but boy am I having fun working it into the plot. It was just the sort of complication I needed at that point.
Have fun with it!
Karen
Karen--I love when that kind of stuff happens. My hero was searching the heroine's room while she took a shower. He suddenly realizes the water isn't running and turns to find her pointing a gun at him. And she's stark naked and it's the beginning of chapter two. Now, really, she should have clothes on, but that little slut sashayed out there in her altogether and I'll be damned if I'm going to make her go back for a towel. And it kind of helped set up her all for nothing personality.
Such fun! I love your abandoned camp and Party's train riding heroine.
What a job, huh?
Alice
All the friggin' time.
But then I'm not a huge plotter, so it makes sense they throw me curve balls all the time.
I'm always amazed at the way the brain works. Even when I'm not conscious of why or how a scene is important, it invariable BECOMES important down the line. For example, I'll write a villain scene that seems to have nothing to do with what's happening in the plot, and then after I get 100 pgs past that I'll realize, so THAT's why he did that back then! It all tends to work itself out in the end whether I'm conscious of it or not. I've stopped fighting this little phenomenon and am just letting it go. Like you said, if it doesn't work out, you can always delete, delete, delete.
Mmmmm...I give my characters rein of my brain. To a certain extent. It's my story, not theirs. It's about them, but not by them. If they get too wild and carried away, I whoa them in. But if they do something unexpected and I can work with it -- then by all means, you rascally characters, have at it!
Good luck with your train riding outlaw gal, Paty!
Whew! It sounds like I'm not the only one with character control issues! LOL
Alice, you gotta love a naked woman with a gun! LOL
Karen, I think your story is going to be a lot of fun to read when you get it done.
Elisabeth, yeah, we pansters never know where we're headed do we?
Danita, I know, you are a control freak! LOL It's good you can keep a rein on your characters. I try, but some times things just happen and I'm thinking this is for the good, the more I research. So, I think I've added another layer to the mystery of this story with her oddball response. Well not oddball to the story, but to my thoughts! LOL
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