I tried to explain to a friend the other day what it’s like to write fiction. He’s a painter and doesn’t even read fiction much, so i was trying to communicate the feeling of sitting at the keyboard and having things just happen.
You’ve plotted the story, you have an idea where it’s going, then you start to write. Your characters begin to talk. By themselves. To each other. And you just try to keep up! They have elaborate conversations expressing thoughts and feeling you never knew were in your brain. You listen and learn. The characters reveal themselves in ways your backstory could never have predicted.
All of a sudden, the story is veering off into a place you never intended and you’re still just trying to hang on for the ride. Whooah. You have to decide if you like this new direction or want to go back to your plan. Maybe there’s a compromise? That’s usually the best way, and often assures that the story sounds fresh and spontaneous — exactly as it is.
And of course, when you finish your book and try to put the story away, the characters start calling to you. Tell my story. Don’t leave me. There’s more to resolve. That’s where sequels come from. And prequels like in my story Genetic Attraction. When i finished the book, the two men demanded to have the story of their meeting and falling in love told in its own book. Who was i to argue? The Scientist and the Supermodel is in editing before submission.
When i was in college, one of my favorite plays was “Six Characters in Search of an Author” by Luigi Pirandello. Still is, in fact. The play, as it’s name implies, tells about a group of characters who have been unresolved by a writer. They come to a playwright to finish their story. Anyone who writes fiction knows how true this idea is.
This storytelling phenomenon is also why i know that writing fiction is as much a right brain activity as it is left. That’s where all those unexpected ideas come from, welling up from our unconscious and filtering through our language centers. Or, maybe our characters just like to talk. : )