When Your Characters Find Their Voices
When Your Characters Find Their Voices...
Would that our characters simply step into the pages of our novels with fully developed personalities, motivation, and strong voices!
Occasionally they do, and it’s fantastic. I call such characters Gifts from the Muse, but in my experience such gifts are rare. What usually happens is I need to live with a character for months before I hand them the lead. And that’s not so easy. Most writers, even experienced ones, find it challenging to hand off control of the book to their characters from the get go.
What makes it so hard is that you don’t know enough about your characters to trust them at the beginning. As writers, we all feel the need to dictate the path of this amorphous thing called The Novel, especially if it’s growing out of control or refusing to take any shape at all.
Letting Your Characters Take The Lead
We think we can plot and plan our way out of the chaos when this happens, but usually we can’t. Sadly, this is where many writers give up in despair and wonder why they ever thought they could write in the first place.
This is the completely wrong track to take!
Why?
Because our characters are born out of the creative chaos, where anything is possible, and understanding how they can lead you through chaos is part of the Creative Process.
So don't keep on rewriting in hopes of finding just the right word and phrases. All first draft writing is wonderfully chaotic. Enjoy it. Even more important, take advantage of it! Write whatever pops into your imagination, no matter how bewildering or unexpected it seems. When we work together, I'll teach you the techniques that will let you hear your characters' voices as they guide you through the process.
Whenever you become too frustrated or lost to keep working, just put the writing aside. Don't worry, your characters will still be there when you're ready to sit down again! But now when you read what you wrote, look with an objective and knowledgeable writer's eye:
The truth is that we all struggle with some version of the above. Writing a book is not a straight line. It’s like bushwhacking into unknown territory. Sludging through muck. Not being afraid of getting lost but knowing that with the right techniques, your characters and their storylines will eventually be found! And knowing in your gut that you have to trust and fall in love with your characters and not be afraid to follow them into the stories and landscapes they know to be true. They won’t disappoint. In fact, if you trust them they will take you on a journey of a lifetime!
Would that our characters simply step into the pages of our novels with fully developed personalities, motivation, and strong voices!
Occasionally they do, and it’s fantastic. I call such characters Gifts from the Muse, but in my experience such gifts are rare. What usually happens is I need to live with a character for months before I hand them the lead. And that’s not so easy. Most writers, even experienced ones, find it challenging to hand off control of the book to their characters from the get go.
What makes it so hard is that you don’t know enough about your characters to trust them at the beginning. As writers, we all feel the need to dictate the path of this amorphous thing called The Novel, especially if it’s growing out of control or refusing to take any shape at all.
Letting Your Characters Take The Lead
We think we can plot and plan our way out of the chaos when this happens, but usually we can’t. Sadly, this is where many writers give up in despair and wonder why they ever thought they could write in the first place.
This is the completely wrong track to take!
Why?
Because our characters are born out of the creative chaos, where anything is possible, and understanding how they can lead you through chaos is part of the Creative Process.
So don't keep on rewriting in hopes of finding just the right word and phrases. All first draft writing is wonderfully chaotic. Enjoy it. Even more important, take advantage of it! Write whatever pops into your imagination, no matter how bewildering or unexpected it seems. When we work together, I'll teach you the techniques that will let you hear your characters' voices as they guide you through the process.
Whenever you become too frustrated or lost to keep working, just put the writing aside. Don't worry, your characters will still be there when you're ready to sit down again! But now when you read what you wrote, look with an objective and knowledgeable writer's eye:
- Have you done a lot of telling from an omniscient narrator’s voice? Don’t despair. Glean what can from all of this telling and use it to write a scene that explores and develops your character's life and world. What are his stories, moods, losses, loves, mysteries, etc.?
- Is your dialogue weak because you've written it without using your character's point of view? Point Of View is what drives a character's inner thoughts, feelings, and actions. Start there. It will immediately begin to flesh out character and story.
- Have you been too focused on plot and forgotten character? Understanding the difference between inner Dramatic Tension, which is character-driven, and outer Dramatic Tension, which is plot-driven, will help demystify the process of fiction writing.
- Have you focused only on character development and forgotten plot? To find plot, try asking your character some What If? questions about her life. Is there something challenging, mystifying, frightening, or dangerous she's facing? Write about it.
- Perhaps you realize you’ve gotten lost in a flood of pretty words and metaphors that, alas, have little to do with characters and plot. Go back to the idea of scene and its Five Ingredients.
The truth is that we all struggle with some version of the above. Writing a book is not a straight line. It’s like bushwhacking into unknown territory. Sludging through muck. Not being afraid of getting lost but knowing that with the right techniques, your characters and their storylines will eventually be found! And knowing in your gut that you have to trust and fall in love with your characters and not be afraid to follow them into the stories and landscapes they know to be true. They won’t disappoint. In fact, if you trust them they will take you on a journey of a lifetime!