Posted by Sedruce at 4:44am Aug 20 '09More than once my characters have revolted against me, and my stories have ended up completely different than what I set out to write.
Okay, so, this book I'm reading--Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing a Novel--says that any time the character gets away from the author, it's a sign of shoddy writing, an incompetent author.
I FULLY disagree. Everyone I know who writes has had the experience at least once that their character does or says things that FIT, but weren't intended. To me, a good writer doesn't force the character, sie tricks or goads or bribes the character if sie really wants a certain thing to happen...to me, it's an amazing accomplishment when characters are so dimensional and real that they have a life of their own to the extent that they change what we're doing. That...is beyond awesome. But this book claims it's awful.
Incidentally, I agree with almost everything else in the book that I've read so far (I'm almost done with all chapters on writing, just the revision and publishing chapters remain), and I recommend it, even to people who've written extensively (as I have). :)
Okay, so, this book I'm reading--Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing a Novel--says that any time the character gets away from the author, it's a sign of shoddy writing, an incompetent author.
I FULLY disagree. Everyone I know who writes has had the experience at least once that their character does or says things that FIT, but weren't intended. To me, a good writer doesn't force the character, sie tricks or goads or bribes the character if sie really wants a certain thing to happen...to me, it's an amazing accomplishment when characters are so dimensional and real that they have a life of their own to the extent that they change what we're doing. That...is beyond awesome. But this book claims it's awful.
Incidentally, I agree with almost everything else in the book that I've read so far (I'm almost done with all chapters on writing, just the revision and publishing chapters remain), and I recommend it, even to people who've written extensively (as I have). :)
Re: My characters - Sedruce