I am a panster, and though I always have a beginning, middle and end, the story can take a different face from when I initially conceived the idea. As it grows up and comes into its own, there is a chance that it has a sense of humor or a mean streak. When I am writing my story it is my baby. All newborns are beautiful, but like all growing things, they can have some awkward periods, especially those terrible two’s when everything is
“No No”. That’s the point at which I want to bang my head against the computer. We nurture and feed our words with ideas. There are special times when it begins to stand on its own two feet or speak in full sentences and hopefully become logical with dreams of its own.
There are some characters I only have a passing relationship with, a brief sentence or two of description in my own mind. The quirks or details unfold as the character comes to life on the page. I’m a big believer in character rehabilitation. The characters are the story teller and there are times I have to rewire their minds and actions, a little like a 12 step program. Plastic surgery is helpful, think deviated septum. Surgery can heal many an ailment. I am big on romance and my characters are fully capable of making me fall in love with them. I hate that when it happens, because then it is hard to let them go when their story is over. (I suppose that is why I immediately wrote two sequels to SOTD.) I will always be comparing the next hero or heroine to them.
But the one thing I am an absolute stickler about is maintaining the mythology of the worlds in which my characters live. In Shaking Off The Dust, one of the three main characters is a ghost. The story was in my head, but once the rules of the ghost were laid down it placed restrictions on what my characters were able to do in relation to Tom’s character. Those rules are not like the usual ones that have been generally applied to ghosts. The mythology of the characters or world creates the reality of your story. Without rules it is difficult for the reader to be pulled into the story you are telling. In SOTD is a big story, but it starts with the small details. And Like a baby that has grown up now, you have to let it go and see if it can stand up to the world, though it will always be your baby.
