Does this happen to anyone else?

[Jenny_Jackson]

My characters are having a gay time writing away. What they have written has no resemblence at all to what I had imagined the story was about. Then suddenly, about 3/4 of the way through the entire store just pops into my head, including the ending, crystal clear. It's so shocking.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

Well, not exactly that. I started a story the other week where a wife was trying to talk her husband into an orgy. But the more he argued against her the less likely the orgy was. It sounded like such a great opening to my story, the wife and husband in bed, her telling him what was happening, and how she wanted to be a part of it, but her husband was just too darn convincing, and knowing where it was going to end, I couldn't bear to finish it

 

[Darkniciad]

Damn near every time. I have very little creative control over my characters, and they frequently stomp off to their trailers and refuse to come out if I so much as try to nudge them away from where they want to go.

 

[S-Des]

I usually have a clear vision of where it's going and what will happen before I start writing. I work the entire story out in my head like a movie, then simply tell it. Occasionally, it will spin off on me. More often, I'll have someone do a read-through and tell me that they don't understand how I got from point A to point C. Then I have to figure out how to tell it in a better way, which can lead to entire sections I never envisioned.

 

[Ravlicious]

My characters are having a gay time writing away. What they have written has no resemblence at all to what I had imagined the story was about. Then suddenly, about 3/4 of the way through the entire store just pops into my head, including the ending, crystal clear. It's so shocking.

Those are the best writing experiences. It makes a writing session so much fun when that happens. I guess it's times like that that make me want to go back to my desk and write a new story. Anyway, I usually just start with a vague idea of a story and hope my characters can make it interesting, and more importantly, see it to a satisfying conclusion.

 

[Carnevil9]

My characters are having a gay time writing away. What they have written has no resemblence at all to what I had imagined the story was about. Then suddenly, about 3/4 of the way through the entire store just pops into my head, including the ending, crystal clear. It's so shocking.

I guess it all depends on who is in charge: you, or the fictional constructs of your mind that you lend your sovereignty to..... Carney

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Stephen King said that you don't so much write a story as uncover it. I don't much like Stephen King, but I love that statement.

Writing's a lot like unearthing a fossil. You find something and you're not sure what it is. You start scraping away the dirt and following the lines and pretty soon the shape of the thing takes over and shows you where to dig next. Finally you pick the thing up and look at it, turn it over and see what it is and what it means.

I start my stories with the slimmest ideas and it's only by watching my characters that I see what it's about. It's a marvel to behold when it works, and a bitch when it doesn't.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Reminds me of a Max Beerbohm story; "Savanarola Brown"
Anyone ever read it?

 

[arienette]

Damn near every time. I have very little creative control over my characters, and they frequently stomp off to their trailers and refuse to come out if I so much as try to nudge them away from where they want to go.

I've written three stories, well...I've attempted, anyway; I'm not all that good at stories. However, the second story I wrote was a modern day adaptation to Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. My characters spoke to me then and I have about the same situation happen. I was arguing with my main character, Maggie, and she ended up getting her way and the story turned out amazingly...I just wish I didn't lose it; damn old hard drive that got wiped and losing my travel drive.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

My characters are having a gay time writing away. What they have written has no resemblence at all to what I had imagined the story was about. Then suddenly, about 3/4 of the way through the entire store just pops into my head, including the ending, crystal clear. It's so shocking.

You ARE going to do NaNo this year, aren't you?

Seriously, it happens to me a lot that my characters start talking and acting in ways I hadn't foreseen. Ine of them even went and got herself pregnant and dropped out of school - and she was SUPPOSED to be nothing but an attractive but rather invisible side-kick!

 

[Aurora Black]

I usually have a clear vision of where it's going and what will happen before I start writing. I work the entire story out in my head like a movie, then simply tell it. Occasionally, it will spin off on me.

Yeppers. When I began my last big project, the ending was the first scene that was clear in my mind. Everything else developed around that part, and then I started writing the story itself.

 

[oggbashan]

Yes.

Once my muses get started, what happens to the story is beyond my control.

They can make or mar a story.

Og

 

[Recidiva]

Yes, that's pretty much how things get written for me.

They tell me what to do. And sometimes they're really fucked up, but they're right, it's fun.

 

[AngeloMichael]

Yes, I love epiphany moments in writing, puts me on a natural high better than any drug.

 

[cantdog]

I get the 'aha' thing, when a plot kink irons out in a flash of, ahem, brilliant insight. But my characters are characters and they sit there maddeningly quiescent until I tell them what's next. They are no help, and they don't 'take control' of a damn thing. But I hear this stuff about balky characters all the time. How does it work, exactly? Voices? Frozen keyboards? How do they communicate?

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

You ARE going to do NaNo this year, aren't you?

NaNo???

 

[Aurora Black]

NaNo???

National Novel Writing Month. It happens every November, and we all race to write 50K words between the 1st and the 30th.

It's crazy as hell, but so satisfying.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

It's crazy as hell, but so satisfying.

If you complete it. If you don't, it's frustrating as hell.

 

[SeaCat]

LOL

I start a story with an idea of the characters and where the story is going. I may even have a good idea of the beginning. Then the characters take over. They write their own story and I'm just along to hit the keys on the keyboard.

Sometimes the story even ends like I envisioned, but not usually.

Cat

 

[FallingToFly]

My characters regularly hijack my stories and take them wherever they want to go. It's annoying- and it paints ME, the person with the fucking OUTLINE, DEADLINE, and REASON FOR WANTING IT THAT WAY into a corner.

sorry, can you tell I have some character arguments going on?