{"id":2256,"date":"2009-02-27T00:00:47","date_gmt":"2009-02-27T00:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shilohwalker.wordpress.com\/?p=2256"},"modified":"2009-02-27T00:00:47","modified_gmt":"2009-02-27T00:00:47","slug":"in-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2009\/02\/in-control\/","title":{"rendered":"In Control"},"content":{"rendered":"

While at the signing over the weekend, we got to talking about characters…namely how much control authors have over characters.<\/p>\n

For a lot of us, the answer to that is…next to none.\u00a0 Especially once they take on life of their own.<\/p>\n

For a very short amount of time, I might have a little bit of control.\u00a0 I do mean, a very short amount of time, and a very little bit of control.\u00a0 But the more the story unfolds, the less control I have.<\/p>\n

Two of my recent books ended up having secondary characters that were supposed<\/em> to be the bad guys.\u00a0 Supposed<\/em> to be.\u00a0 As in that was my plan from the beginning.\u00a0 And what did they do?<\/p>\n

Put their feet down and refused.<\/p>\n

The entire time I was writing the story, I had a set goal in mind and I thought I knew vaguely how each story would end.\u00a0 How wrong I was.\u00a0 About half way through each book, the characters started jerking at this chain I had put on, digging in their heels and refusing to do a damn thing until I rethought how I was telling my story.\u00a0 More specifically, how I was telling their<\/em> stories.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t until I finally gave in and gave them some control of their lives that the story finally started flowing again.<\/p>\n

Characters take on their own personalities and once they do that, the writer is no longer in control.\u00a0 We might be driving the car, but somebody else is giving us the directions and if we don’t listen, we’re screwed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While at the signing over the weekend, we got to talking about characters…namely how much control authors have over characters. 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