When Characters Come To Life!
Last weekend I finally understood what it meant to let your characters travel their own paths. Having never written a piece of fiction before, I had been fastidious about my characters’ personal details. I had painstakingly listed down both their characteristics and characterisations and was determined not to be led astray during the writing process. Then I received this nugget of advice from Razlina Ramli of 95% The Writer's Academy and another writer, Sharon Bakar – let your characters take over. I understood what they meant but the real experience only took place 40,000-odd words into the book.
I was in the middle of a scene where my main character, who was already happily attached, was introduced to a female volunteer where he was doing charity work. They were barely five minutes into their conversation when I suddenly stopped typing and realised, “Oh my god. He’s going to leave his girlfriend. This new woman is going to tell him to.”
The clarity was startling. And liberating. Finally my characters had found their own voice and were making a stand. Adam, who had just proposed to Lisa, was about to realise that she wasn’t worth it. Lisa, who started out as the perfect girlfriend, was going to turn readers against her because of her misplaced priorities. And Joanna, who was never meant to be more than just another volunteer, was now about to become Adam’s guiding light. My characters had found themselves and I was no longer the puppet master. Or mistress.
I had been waiting for this moment for a long, long time. For the moment when the story finally becomes more than a plot, subplot, climax, obstacles, setbacks and payoffs. When the story truly springs to life (like the jagged line on a heart rate monitor) and I write without referring to my index cards. When my characters assure me they can take care of their own live and invite me to enjoy it with them by relinquishing my fears, doubts and obsession with ‘the rules’.
What did it feel like? Intoxicating.
The other highlight of my weekend was an email from the Sivananda Centre in India telling me I had been accepted into next year’s Yoga Teacher’s Training Course. Woo hoo!!
I was in the middle of a scene where my main character, who was already happily attached, was introduced to a female volunteer where he was doing charity work. They were barely five minutes into their conversation when I suddenly stopped typing and realised, “Oh my god. He’s going to leave his girlfriend. This new woman is going to tell him to.”
The clarity was startling. And liberating. Finally my characters had found their own voice and were making a stand. Adam, who had just proposed to Lisa, was about to realise that she wasn’t worth it. Lisa, who started out as the perfect girlfriend, was going to turn readers against her because of her misplaced priorities. And Joanna, who was never meant to be more than just another volunteer, was now about to become Adam’s guiding light. My characters had found themselves and I was no longer the puppet master. Or mistress.
I had been waiting for this moment for a long, long time. For the moment when the story finally becomes more than a plot, subplot, climax, obstacles, setbacks and payoffs. When the story truly springs to life (like the jagged line on a heart rate monitor) and I write without referring to my index cards. When my characters assure me they can take care of their own live and invite me to enjoy it with them by relinquishing my fears, doubts and obsession with ‘the rules’.
What did it feel like? Intoxicating.
The other highlight of my weekend was an email from the Sivananda Centre in India telling me I had been accepted into next year’s Yoga Teacher’s Training Course. Woo hoo!!
posted by starlight at 9:58 AM
2 Comments:
*Jumps in the air with joy!*
All you have to do is listen and take dictation. Your characters know so much better than you do.
There's a lovely story in Naomi Epel's Writers Dreaming about how Bharati Mukerjee had everything mapped out for her character in her story Buried Lives but her character refused to play along and he decided the ending - which is powerful. (Will show you it another day.)
Once you've made this leap, you've changed as a writer and I'm very happy for you.
How true! It was as though Adam was sulking in a corner and refusing to take another step, until I allowed him to decide what was best for himself. I will try to use a freer hand during my NaNoWriMo novel!
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