When characters won't cooperate...
This is my idea of Charles Stafford, the twin brother of Marc Stafford from A Woman's Worth. Does he look like a troublemaker to you?
Well, yesterday, during what turned out to be an unprofitable afternoon of working on Till You Come Back to Me ,
Charles told me he wasn't going to move to Nigeria. That probably doesn't sound like anything major to you, but it really screwed with my plans for him and Adanna.
Without giving too much of the story away, let me explain my writing process. I'm a plotter and can't function with some kind of outline before I start writing. When I created the original outline for the story, I had a plan in mind that would take Charles on a certain path. In my mind it worked out well, but yesterday afternoon he told me he wasn't having it.
Those of you who aren't writers might think that sounds ridiculous. After all, I am the author, and it's up to me to make the characters do what I tell them, right? Well, those of you who are writers know that it doesn't always go so smoothly. Charles has another plan, and after I listened to what he had to say (sounds crazy, I know), it made much more sense to where the story needs to go. And his plan also flows better with his family history.
Adanna, the heroine will be the catalyst behind his decision, and her reasoning will take the story in a better direction.
After nine books, I've finally learned that I am the driver on these literary journeys, but my characters are the GPS. They know where they want to go, and it's up to me to get them there. This story is taking me longer than I anticipated to finish, which should be a big surprise to me. I'm always running behind when it comes to my envisioned release date. After the last release fiasco, I concluded that I won't announce a release date until the book has gone to my editor. Until then I'll just say, "Coming soon."
Let's see how things go today...
Writers, has this ever happened to you? How do you handle it?
Well, yesterday, during what turned out to be an unprofitable afternoon of working on Till You Come Back to Me ,
Charles told me he wasn't going to move to Nigeria. That probably doesn't sound like anything major to you, but it really screwed with my plans for him and Adanna.
Without giving too much of the story away, let me explain my writing process. I'm a plotter and can't function with some kind of outline before I start writing. When I created the original outline for the story, I had a plan in mind that would take Charles on a certain path. In my mind it worked out well, but yesterday afternoon he told me he wasn't having it.
Those of you who aren't writers might think that sounds ridiculous. After all, I am the author, and it's up to me to make the characters do what I tell them, right? Well, those of you who are writers know that it doesn't always go so smoothly. Charles has another plan, and after I listened to what he had to say (sounds crazy, I know), it made much more sense to where the story needs to go. And his plan also flows better with his family history.
Adanna, the heroine will be the catalyst behind his decision, and her reasoning will take the story in a better direction.
After nine books, I've finally learned that I am the driver on these literary journeys, but my characters are the GPS. They know where they want to go, and it's up to me to get them there. This story is taking me longer than I anticipated to finish, which should be a big surprise to me. I'm always running behind when it comes to my envisioned release date. After the last release fiasco, I concluded that I won't announce a release date until the book has gone to my editor. Until then I'll just say, "Coming soon."
Let's see how things go today...
Writers, has this ever happened to you? How do you handle it?
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