Writer, on writing

As the mother of a seven-year-old debate captain, complaint department and future lawyer, it occasionally becomes tempting to use the time-honored, albeit arbitrary, way to win an argument:

“Because I’m the Mom and I said so!”

Likewise, as a writer, your fictional characters fight back (and I challenge any writer out there to tell me that their characters don’t talk back to them in a way that would put a teenage Loki to shame). When this happens, it’s very tempting to point at your outline and...