Another one of those 'Explain Your Process to me' questions. And this is to all writers, no matter how many words or how few.
What do you do when your characters- who you are herding towards a plot point or goal-line or particular destination- run off and go the other way?
First of all, does this happen to everyone?
I'm thinking of you organized, linear outliners who have pretty much every chapter plotted. Does that even happen to you? Or are you able to pull them back into line?
And, you know, I'd love some really specific examples. What were you trying for and what happened instead? And did that improve the story or did you end up throwing page upon page out the window?
I've got two examples from my own stuff. First, in one of my earliest stories, Superman Undone, Superman and Lois are discussing CK's 'death' at the hands of those gangsters. She is arguing that Superman has failed to protect CK, that is was important. And he is protesting that he has always been there for her when it mattered. Ok. That was supposed to be the end of that. End scene. But then Lois said, out of nowhere and it was not in the first draft, second, or third. "My life was tied to his, when you didn't come for him, you didn't come for me." Or something like that.
The result? Once she said it, I couldn't make her unsay it. And then I had to toss the last half of the story entirely because that comment was a big, fat elephant I couldn't figure out how to write around otherwise.
Is this too long? It is. Stay with me!
In Through the Window I sent our Lois to altClark. She's trapped in his dimension without a clue as to what's happened, no Wells to explain it to her. So, initially I saw her breaking down and telling altClark- a man who would understand completely- that she was from another universe. He would hold her and tell her, "me too," and they would be two lonely souls with this common tie that would hold them together.
But...when she tells him, and he already has his arms around her and is full of sympathy, he did something I didn't expect. He got angry. Right there, to Lois's surprise and my own! Went all rigid, stomped from the room shouting things like, "Who told you?? Are you with the goverment??" And I tell you, I just followed him as mystified as Lois did until he took off from the balcony.
And I loved that! Made that scene so much more interesting, but I'd swear that was all his idea.
Ok. So here it is...Let me know I'm in good company? That I'm not the only one sometimes afraid to open my story file for the things the characters may do or say I hadn't planned on? I want to know. Indulge me?? Please??
CC (who, if no one answers this thread, will probably just start writing you all individually. Don't make me do that.)
