When Characters Have a Mind of Their Own

by Enisa Haines

I had believed myself a plotter when I wrote my first manuscript. I planned out the plot - 'What if this?' and 'What if that?' - in comprehensive detail. I knew the characters and what would happen and when and where. I worked on the outline, the events of each chapter, the synopsis. I wrote the book and I wrote it fast, but when I reached 'The End' something about the process didn't feel right. 

Image courtesy of: CCO Creative Commons

I spent many an hour wondering why. Too rigid and methodical, I realised, for a writer like me, happiest when my creativity is spontaneous. And in that happy state, my imagination let loose a vision. I saw this guy on a motor bike travelling down a winding road and I got to thinking: Who is he? Why is he on the road? Where is he going? The answers and the visions that then appeared gave me my second manuscript, and another revelation.

I'm not a plotter or a pantser, 'flying by the seat of my pants' planning only the basics or nothing at all. I'm not a plantser, plotting some of the story. I am a scener. I imagine scenes. They come in no particular order so there's some juggling done for them to make sense but they and the characters they reveal are the story.

Image courtesy of: archanN on  Wikimedia Commons 

That's not all. One day I was thinking of a character and he spoke to me. Yes, I had visualised him, a product of my imagination,  but he wanted things done his way. At first I ignored his urging - characters don't speak to their writers - and wrote the scenes as I had imagined them. But he was persistent, rejecting what I'd written so I gave in and wrote what he wanted me to write and introduced another character I had not envisaged. A character I knew immediately was pivotal to the plot and the happy-ever-after ending my hero character deserved.

I soon understood that characters, though coming into existence from my subconscious, are real in my mind. They take on a life of their own with their own thoughts and feelings and react in their own ways to situations they find themselves in. Maybe it's weird but I believe their stories are not my stories. I just write them and that, in itself, is magic.

Do your characters speak to you, ordering you to write as they want? Do you let them shape the story or do you rein them in?

Love to love: reading, immersing myself in the tales of characters imagined and yet feeling so real.

Love to laugh: at the often-strange-and-funny quirks fictional characters have.

Love to learn: about the many differences that make the characters who they are.

Overcoming The Fear

At first glance writing may not seem like the scariest of endeavours. But writers, whether published or not, face an immense mental challenge, and this can turn into a crippling fear.

The first challenge is the empty screen. That flashing cursor waiting patiently for you to fill the page with brilliance.  

Then once you start writing the niggle that the story isn't quite right, that your middle will sag, that your middle does sag, that you're spending hours every day working on something that is an appalling pile of nonsense, even that somewhere there's another writer writing a story almost identical to yours... I call these the Doubt Demons.

The standard advice is to just keep writing... 

While I take Mr Bradbury's point, this kind of advice doesn't help when I'm teetering on the brink of an anxiety attack, consumed with self doubt and scrubbing the toilet as a virtuous form of procrastination.

Fear not, though.  I know way to overcome the dreaded doubt demons.

Its habit.

Humans are habit driven creatures.  Check out The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg for a heap of fascinating research on this subject.  

In my writing I have harnessed this characteristic of habit, and used it to keep motivated and overcome the Doubt Demons.

Motivation-wise I've developed a habit of showing up.  8am, for one hour, I will sit down at my computer to write.  That is my habit.

All I ask of myself is that I show up. That's it. I don't have a word count goal. I don't expect anything else of myself except that at 8am I am seated in front of my laptop.  Sometimes the hour flies by, and I'm there for another two.  Sometimes I've got nothing and spend the time researching (which is fine, the goal is to move the story forward and research will always do this).  Sometimes I'm overwhelmed with self-doubt and can only focus on the washing that needs folding, the toilet that need scrubbing or the dogs who need walking...

This is where I also use habit.

Self doubt, negative self talk, overwhelm, anxiety... this fear, or negative mental state is a habit.  For me, as soon as I lose where the plot is heading, struggle with a scene, or have anything be remotely challenging the Doubt Demons take over my inner dialogue.

These issues are always going to be there when I'm writing. A plot never goes smoothly. Scenes suck. Challenges come out of nowhere.  I cannot change the 'trigger' for the negative self-talk habit.

However, I can (and have) changed my reaction.

First, I don't let myself entertain the negative self-talk.  As soon the inner dialogue starts I redirect it.  I refuse to think negatively.  Generally I give focussing back on the story a go.  Sometimes that works. But not always, so...

Secondly, I think 'ooh a problem to be solved.'  I turn the negativity into something positive and interesting.  I like to solve problems. I find it engaging and enjoyable.  I take time to pick apart the problem, and nut out solutions.

Doubt Demons do not have to have a place in your writing life.  They are a habit.  And habits, with patience, persistence and practice can be changed.

The Trouble with Choices - the Backstory for the New Story

by Trish Morey

Once upon a time there was a family called Faraday living in the Adelaide Hills. There was big brother Dan, twin younger sisters, Hannah and Beth, and little sister, Sophie. Dan was a serious (read: grumpy) cherry orchardist who needed casual pickers. Enter Lucy - fresh out of the US - blonde, tattooed and nose-studded, two out of three of those things just about an indictable offence in Dan's book. Dan and Lucy were polar opposites, but is it they say about opposites attracting? Yep, bam, despite all their efforts, they ended up slap bang in love.

The book was Cherry Season, and it came out in 2015 (that's like, years ago!)

Anyway, while Dan and Lucy were out there luxuriating in their happy ever after, the three girls were all sitting at home twiddling their thumbs. They weren't too happy about it either. Eventually they got together and formed a lobby group, and the next thing is, they're all banging on in my ear about wanting their own happy ever afters. Crikeys, you should have heard the din!

I finally relented, thinking I could do them all one at a time, but you should have heard them then. It was all, "Pick me." "No, me." "Move over, you bitches. Me, first!" Things got pretty catty there for a while, and I realised there was only one way to shut them up, and that was to tell all three stories in one book. Yep, three romances in one book - talk about value for money! Of course, they all wanted to star in the first chapter. (I made them draw straws for that - they couldn't argue with me then.) They still bitched about it, of course - especially when they others learned that Sophie abused the privilege and went and got herself drunk at brother Dan's wedding. Oh, boy. Hannah went right off.

Eventually I managed to get them all sorted. I think. And now Sophie, Hannah and Beth all star in their own book, The Trouble with Choices, (along with their octogenarian grandparents, who are having issues of their own, a male cat named Fat Cat, a gorgeous Irishman called Declan who is looking after a baby joey kangaroo (aw!), a big-hearted, bushy-haired handyman called Harry, and a sexy apple orchardist called Nick. Plus a couple of cute kids, a sweet little dog called Boo and a Vacola bottling outfit. Yep, this book's got everything, including the kitchen sink!

The trouble wit choices...is they come with consequences.
Three sisters, three tough choices, and the ties that bind a family together.

The Trouble with Choices is out now. It's the kind of book you want to read with a box of chocolates, a bottle of Prosecco and a box of tissues, just in case.

Enjoy!

I love to love...romance. Just a happy ending.

I love to laugh...I do, which is why I adore romantic comedy. Love and laughter - what's not to love?

I love to learn...how many characters are going to get to their very own happy endings. Three-quarters of the way through a book, I often wonder.