Came in through the bathroom window

[pjthompson]

I so did not want to write today.

I'm closing in on 50,000 words on the latest novel. I finished chapter 13 yesterday, handed it off to my local readers, and I was feeling like a snot-nosed punk and rebellious. I just did not want to launch into chapter 14—although I started the first scene of that yesterday, too. So I gave myself permission not to write if I really really really didn't want to.

"But why don't you just read over what you wrote yesterday?" I asked myself. "If you really really really don't want to write after that, you have permission not to."

This is my usual trick for tricking myself into a writing session. After rereading what I wrote the day before and doing an edit, I'm usually well into the writer mind frame and off and away to the new stuff. And even though I know I'm tricking myself because—well, I'm me and I can read my own mind—I allow myself to be tricked anyway.

The thing is, these little guys showed up in today's new material: strange little creatures that popped up out of nowhere that weren't part of the plan but fit the plan beautifully. Where did those little guys come from? They were fully formed when they arrived, ready for action. And I liked them and I was so glad I wrote them.

And I couldn't help wondering if I'd given into my punkiness today and not written, would those little guys have shown up? Did they require a certain day and a certain set of circumstances to appear, or were they there lurking in my subconscious waiting all this time for their big moment? Sometimes when my characters come through I'm just amazed.

"Where did you come from?" I ask them.

They shrug and try to look cool. "I'm with the band."

I have a friend who has a theory that all characters are waiting in some great Otherwhere for the right writer to come along and give them an opportunity. I'm not sure I'd go that far, but some days . . .

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I'm a firm believer in the Other Window, myself...you know, you watch the story through the Other Window.

[pjthompson]

Not so much a "cinema of the mind" thing but a left brain-right brain peek?

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I think of it pretty much as watching and listening to the movie!

[pjthompson]

Yeah, that's what it's like much of the time. I'm not a puppet master kind of writer, I'm a viewer. And these lovely surprises are a big reason why I still write. It's nice to explore and be surprised.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Yes! I love it when that happens--it really is deeply satisfying like nothing else.

[frigg.livejournal.com]

Fornit some fornus? :)

I insist on being rational and blame my characters on my subconscious, however it is suspiciously good at hiding them until the very last minute...hmmm....

[pjthompson]

I struggle to be rational but I secretly prefer the mystico stuff. :-) Hmm. Maybe not so secret.

[kmkibble75.livejournal.com]

I thinki that theory about characters waiting in an otherworld would explain an awful lot, though. I wouldn't brush it aside :-)

I think I'm going to adopt that trick of yours. I've been letting too many days pass without writing at all. And too many people are lapping me as far as finishing books goes! :-)

So these little guys will show up in Chapter 13? You have me all curious about them now. Hey, you have Chapter 4 up, don't you? I need to get cracking on my queue so I can get to that...

[pjthompson]

I thinki that theory about characters waiting in an otherworld would explain an awful lot, though. I wouldn't brush it aside :-)

On my "conduit" days it's difficult to brush it aside completely.

I think I'm going to adopt that trick of yours.

I find that giving myself permission to funk off works in a lot of areas. Except housework. I seem all too ready to take myself up on that permission. :-/

So these little guys will show up in Chapter 13? You have me all curious about them now.

Hopefully they'll live up to their billing. :-)

[kimberlychapman.livejournal.com]

I frequently insist to my husband that it's NOT my fault the characters are suffering. Either they got themselves into that mess through their own stupidity, or the world just sucks sometimes. He insists back that I can control that world. I'm not always sure that's true.

I usually feel like an observer to my characters. I pop in and out of their heads and I absolutely feel every emotion they go through, but it's like being the ultimate voyeur more than a creative force. This is why they often do things that I would NEVER do, even the "good guys".

Just today in my LJ I mentioned how yet again it seems that I did not create Nick so much as discovered him (his main hobby is gourmet cooking, I can't stand most fancy food). I know I created some of the backup characters, but Nick...nah, he just came by one day and now he lives in my head and NEVER. SHUTS. UP. I have considered getting him his own LJ, only, he'd be irritated at having to put himself out there like that because he's intensely private with personal stuff.

But you know, I bet answering memes as him could be interesting...hrm....

This is yet another way where we writers get away with stuff that would be called mental illness in any other field. :)

[pjthompson]

They do have a tendency to stick around sometimes.

I have this funny picture up at my house. It shows a turtle sitting at a tree trunk table with a glass of wine in his hand. Opposite him is another glass of wine levitating in mid-air. The caption reads, "Schizophrenia beats eating alone."

:-)