Author! Author!

[GaryKelly]

Well, boils and goils, I wouldn't know an author if I fell over one. I'm an author by default...it's not something I thought about until fairly recently, and now I'm hooked.

 

What I'd like to know from 'proper' authors is this: are you led by the characters you write about or do you lead them? Do you find that their personalities grow as the story progresses and that you're confronted by scenarios you hadn't anticipated in chapter one?

 

Sometimes I feel like a typist taking dictation from my characters.

[DomLuka]

pst

[Graeme]

I would suggest to the administrators that this topic be moved to the Writer's Corner.

 

To answer the question, I agree with Dom.

 

The characters quickly develop their own personalilty. I have control over what they do, within those limits, so I can direct the story in the direction I want -- but I can't make them do something that is "wrong" for that character.

 

I tend to write character-driven stories, and so this is more prominent than someone who writes event-driven stories (eg. action thrillers tend to be driven by events that push the characters, rather than characters that drive/trigger the events).

 

I am always finding new things that happen as I write. Situations that were not originally planned suggest themselves as a logical consequence of things that the characters have said or done. For me, that's part of what makes writing so much fun

[GaryKelly]

I am always finding new things that happen as I write. Situations that were not originally planned suggest themselves as a logical consequence of things that the characters have said or done. For me, that's part of what makes writing so much fun

 

Yes! Quite the brain teaser but also fun! I once wrote that authors may know the beginning and ending, but in between runs its own race...just as in real life.

[Krista]

Well, boils and goils, I wouldn't know an author if I fell over one. I'm an author by default...it's not something I thought about until fairly recently, and now I'm hooked.

 

What I'd like to know from 'proper' authors is this: are you led by the characters you write about or do you lead them? Do you find that their personalities grow as the story progresses and that you're confronted by scenarios you hadn't anticipated in chapter one?

 

Sometimes I feel like a typist taking dictation from my characters.

 

 

Eh.. anyone who writes anything is an author of some kind.

 

I am driven by the characters more than me leading them. It's a little of both, I think it has to be to a point, only to keep the characters in check to what their normal personalities are. As for them growing with scenarios, I think that's the most important part about a character. Is that they can adapt and change with what writers throw at them in their stories.

 

Reading a story where something tragic happened to the character - like their dog dying and then being chipper the next day as if the dog never existed just annoys me... lol. So characters have to change, it adds depth and feeling to them, making them more complex and real. It makes them enjoyable and the story is just complimentary to good characters.

 

Krista

[Michael H]

If I had to define the term I'd say an author is someone who has put pen to paper. A writer on the other hand is someone who makes his living putting pen to paper.

So, all writers are authors but not all authors are writers.

 

I have three books out and catalogued in the Library of Congress but I don't consider myself a writer. I'd be one lean cookie if I depended on royalties to eat!

 

I do agree with Gary. When I begin a story I write the first chapter and the last, then I let the characters find their way. That doesn't mean I'm wedded to the end chapter but it gives the story a balance I feel I need.

 

Michael

[BeaStKid]

Yes, oh yes!

 

My characters 'speak' to me. So much so, that one of the Round-Robins that I am a part of has the same names in one of my stories and those characters(from my story) are crying afoul!

 

I do not like to repeat names....

 

And did I mention that I have a rather untamed muse? Beast is quite a wild muse. *Ouch!*

 

See?

 

BeaStKid