Thinking Large

I love the strips where Calvin is playing "disaster" games. Clearly he's destined to win a Hugo. I keep wanting to hook him up with Lilo...

Yes, the gods often look to humans for idle entertainment. Clash of the Titans rendered it aptly and colorfully with the game board.

When I'm writing, though, I tend to have minimal influence over what happens. I can change small details; I can change what I reveal or conceal; I can change how I describe something. But I usually can't change large details or structural stuff, unless I simply wrote something down wrong. (Among my commonest errors is getting scenes out of sequence.) So the few of my characters who know I'm here, they don't bitch at me for doing nasty things to them, they bitch at me for blabbing. But most of them like me.

More typically, a writer's characters have violent thoughts toward the writer.

Such fun, yes! I love to watch them learn and grow.

What really fascinates me, though, are the things my characters know that I don't. Things they can do that I can't. Things they think of that I wouldn't. Hell, things that I'm dead certain I know better than, that they turn out to be right about anyhow!

There are two kinds of writers: those who make things up, and those who write things down. Even among the latter, not all writers interact closely with their characters, but some of us do. Not all of our characters seem to notice us, but the ones who do, can become good friends. There are people in other worlds that I've known since I was in junior high.

If this sort of thing intrigues you, I recommend the work of haikujaguar and shadesong.

No, nothing is wrong. There Is No One True Right And Only Way.

Some writers start out making things up and evolve into writing things down. But usually the path you start with is the one you stick with. Each has its pros and cons. If you're making it up, you often have more freedom and flexibility but it takes more work because you have to think of everything yourself. If you're writing it down, it can be less work but changing things is really hard, especially in revisions.

Observe different writers; watch them talk about what they do and how. There are many effective approaches. A lot of my writer-friends are on LJ: sleigh, jpsorrow, and difrancis all frequently blog about writing theory and techniques. Better yet, the first two of those also do a lot of guest-blogging where they get their writer-friends to post something, so you get to meet a lot of different people.