The writer slaves away to birth the story, to populate it, to give it meaning and express the sentiments that are implied within it. For awhile it seems that the writer controls every aspect of the piece, that it is simply a question of reading and ordering the notes so that the tale can move properly along its course. There is certainly a lot of note taking, a pile of sculpting of the environment, adjusting the words and the looks of the characters, and the historical fixing of the time-line, if it has to be there.
But at some point, quite unexpectedly, the weight of the combined characters coalesces into an entity which has matured far beyond the original coarse shaping. These ‘people’ are a force to be reckoned with; they have opinions, expectations, notions, skill sets that the author hadn’t thought of at all in the beginning. All of this extra activity adds pages and pages to the story, for the writer has been given a new role by this time, that of lowly scribe, and the characters, for their very survival in word, have taken charge of how the story will go on.
I believe I mentioned the following example in an earlier blog. Doesn’t matter, here it is again, for it rather clearly describes what I have been talking about.
At the very end of the Prequel, B’Hemoth, a new character, Nonnie, appears. A cheeky one too, with a scandalous agenda, which she deftly pulls off. Book One of the Trilogy begins, the world has gone to Hell in a hay basket, and the writer, yours truly, up to the challenge, has Cataclysm’s Day carefully mapped out and poised to blend seamlessly into Book Two, The Blessings of Dis.
One morning very early, sitting up in bed, a voice within my head was heard to remark,
“What about Nonnie?”
“What about her, she must surely have died?”
“No, she hasn’t, Nonnie is very much alive.”
Can you understand what that revelation means?
Short answer, a complete reconfiguring and writing of Book One, Cataclysm’s Day! Nonnie becomes a powerhouse character, not a hasty late addition.
The story continues.
tetralogia 