Characters Can Surprise You

There seem to be two main approaches to writing. There are those that want to outline everything in advance and there are those that just start writing, letting the story lead them wherever it may go. In my case, I did heavy outlining because the story was generally already in place.

An outline is sort of like a road map. You can see where you are and you can see where you are going. You can see which route you are going to take and maybe even where some other roads cross your path several times.

But when you are writing you are actually on the road driving. You might know there's a town up ahead but you don't know what it looks like and how the people act until you get there. Or maybe there's a roadblock and you have to take a detour on one of those side roads. Unlike looking at a road map, you can look out your window and enjoy the scenery.

I'll quit stretching the analogy. What I'm trying to say is that no matter how much you have outlined, you are still going to be surprised. I've always heard writers say that characters write themselves. Or maybe they thought they were going to take the story one way until a particular character jumped up and said "No! I'm going this way!"

Guess what? I now totally understand that. It really does happen.

As I began writing, I discovered ways to involve my characters in a tighter narrative. What I mean is, there would be a scene that would involve characters A and B. As I wrote the scene, character C would show up. I wasn't expecting it, but C kind of popped up and told me that he belonged there.

This happened several times and what quickly emerged was a more cohesive throughline to the book than what I had planned.  Plotlines that were going to appear disparate at first began to flow into my keyboard much more intricately woven than I had anticipated. What a wonderful surprise that was! 

I also figured out very early that a character I introduced early could fill the role that was going to be needed at the climax of the third book.  It would have been a mistake to have a newcomer show up in the third act and play a large part in saving the day. Much better to have a well established character do that.

I'm still amazed at the phenomenon. I'm the writer of this thing. I'm holding the magic roadmap in my hand that shows me every road and small town. I guess I forgot that just because someone draws up the cartography, it doesn't mean they also populated the towns. Even though I had this all outlined, the story still has the capacity to surprise me. 

This is fun! You create a setting and a problem. You give your characters a personality trait or two and an agenda or motivation and then just let 'em loose. 

As of this writing, I'm about 27,000 words into my novel. So far, there have been two occasions where I was stuck. I knew for plot purposes I had to get from point A to point B, but I couldn't figure out how to get there. Both times a character stepped up and took care of it for me. I just came up with a scene that involved several characters with different opinions and goals and let them have it out. Thanks, guys!

It works. It really works. And that's an amazing discovery.

Next: the importance of using dialogue over descriptive passages

Structure and Outline

During the summer of 2007, I spent a few weeks poking around the internet learning what I could about dramatic struture. I learned about concepts such as "Turning Points" and "Pinches". I had to look at my story and figure out where the lowest, or darkest, point for our hero was and how did I get from there to the climax.

Then as I looked over all I had planned, one thing jumped out at me. This was a big story with a fairly complicated plot. It was too much for one book. This was going to be a trilogy. So I had another challenge in terms of structure: The three books had to fit the pattern of a Three Act Play.

The first book needed to introduce all the key characters and the driving conflict. The second book had to heighten that conflict and leave our hero facing overwhelming odds. And the third book had to bring everything to a satisfying conclusion that remained true to the characters and the theme. These things need to happen while at the same providing satisfying stand-alone reading experiences in each book. 

So I got out my index cards and my outline and got to work. I pushed and pulled, expanded and contracted until I had it all mapped out. When I was done, I realized that what I had was a very straightforward, linear approach that kept its focus on the main hero the whole time.

I suppose that's one way to write a book, but it just didn't feel right to me. As I looked over my outline I could see that minor or supporting characters would make an appearance and, then much later, they'd show up again at just the right (or wrong) time. I knew how that had  happened, but the reader wasn't going to know.

So I picked a handful of key characters and I wrote down a timeline of events - or story beats - that each of those characters would go through. In this way, I arrived at about five other parallel narratives that fit around the chronology of my main story.

I stayed up WAY too late one night interspersing all the beats of all the different narratives throughout my outline, placing them in just the right spot chronologically. I had a blast doing this. When I was done, I had a blueprint for what I felt - and still believe - to be a very entertaining novel.

So I had my plan. At this point, September 2007, I knew every major scene of all three books. I had no more excuses. 

But I found myself frozen, too intimidated to sit down in front of a blank computer screen and begin crafting the first scene.

What was I waiting for?

Next: How I forced myself out of the starting gate.