Image Courtesy of Creative Commons – Flickr – vernhart

I have always loved the idea that

our characters can lead us places we never expected a story to go.

If you’ve never experienced this in your writing

then I urge you to give yourself the freedom

to explore.

I’m a planner and yet this and other discoveries about my writing

happen all the time.

It could be as simple as learning that the handbag my main character

has in the last scene actually being present in the first scene…

and what’s inside that borrowed bag is even more interesting!

or

The guy she crushed on in training camp turns out

to have a thing for participating in Fight Clubs… and he’s a police officer!

I didn’t need to know these things when I made my

overriding plan for this book and

these nuances, these discoveries get me excited about

learning more about this world and these people.

A word of advice,

if you’ve never let yourself experience this form of wonder in your own writing

consider that you might just be over-planning

or placing too much trust in your foreknowledge of that world…

Surprises are exciting

and yes

at times a bit scary…

Give yourself a shock sometime – it makes for more dynamic writing 🙂

~

What big or small discoveries have you made in your writing recently?

Categories: Notables

Tags: character, creativity, discovery, notable, opinion, planner vs. pantser, plot, quote, writing