When Characters take Control

Most writers feel this, I think. I certainly do. I want to feel it. I strive to feel it. I’m talking about when your characters seem to take over and make things happen. Now, I’m not going to argue the authenticity of the feeling. It's happened to me so I believe I’ve felt it. Maybe it is just finding the groove, the altered state, which allows you to access that part of the brain that makes intuitive leaps. Or maybe you’re connecting to a higher power, any higher power.

Whatever it is that makes it happen, your characters come to life in the sense that it feels like they are writing the story. They take you places you hadn’t thought of or intended to go and these places are the right places for your story. Some of the truest writing comes from these moments because it’s coming from inside the world of the characters and story. You aren’t forcing it.

Often these moments will come when I’ve got the conflict right in a scene and characters are acting and reacting to one another. 

If it happens to you my advice is go with it. Thank the writer gods and write on.

Of course there will be other  times when you have to coax and force your characters forward so you can move the story. Alas, that’s the way of writing. Sometimes you have to get crafty and drive those words like a herd of wild horses or stubborn mules or angry cats. Writing fiction-- sometimes you fly and sometimes you crawl.