On Creative Processes and People

So I read this blog called Reasoning With Vampires, which basically is this girl reading Twilight and pointing out grammatical errors, and the craziness that occurs in these books. I read it partly because I hate Twlight, and partly because I've never read Twilight and I feel like I am getting the cliff notes with this blog, along with funny commentary (I hate that I have not read Twilight and yet I hate the book so much I can't seem to overcome this. Everything about me finds this to be horribly hypocritical. But every time I attempt to even try to read this book I want to spork my eyes out by about page 20. I can't really tell you why except that the characters are uninteresting, and the world not fascinating enough to captivate me even for that long. Plus, Bella whines a lot about... Something? I think moving to Forks. Thirdly, I have been over informed of the terribleness of this book which colors ever error, every tiny problem, and makes it jump out at me, making it all the harder to even attempt to like it. Why subject myself to that? The point being, I'm totally aware that I am a giant hypocrite, but again -- my blog so I'm going to write whatever I want).

The girl who does it is terribly snarky, and while it somewhat terrifies me that someone could go through my writing like that -- it makes me want to go through and make sure my novels are, at the sentence level, good enough to be read by people. Maybe not millions of people, but enough people that it would matter -- I appreciate the levity and humor that comes from it. Plus, I really hate Twilight and anything ripping it to shreds amuses me.

Anyways, I say all of this, because she recently did a post about Stephanie Meyer talking about Edward leaving Bella in which she called Stephanie a crazy person and got responses to it, and responded to them with this.

Now, me and my friend Bryan have had many discussions that have sounded like the following:

Me: My characters won't let me do that. 

Bryan: But you created them, how do you not control them?

Me: I don't control them. They tell me where the story is going. 

Bryan: But you are God in their world. You get to control them. 

Me: No I don't!

So you may find that my response to Reasoning with Vampires's post to be troubled at best. After all, I love the blog, and find people who yell at her for tearing down Twilight to be annoying and stupid (admittedly, I only read the ones she edits to put up). I am not responding to her post therefore, this is not a "OMG HOW COULD SHE IMPLY THAT I AM INSANE!?" (though it does worry me that I have a similar relationship to my characters that Stephanie does). But it did get me thinking about how there are some authors who think this way -- the characters dictate the story not the author -- and there are some who are not (like Bryan, and the girl who writes Reasoning with Vampires) and apparently, one way, some people just don't understand. 

I suppose it could be the dramatics of it. I find myself often making comments like Stephanie's comments that illicit the post. She spoke about throwing a tantrum because Edward decided to leave, tried offering him other options, and tried everything to get him to not leave. While I don't think I've ever physically expressed having a tantrum over some character's decisions -- that would be crazy -- I would phrase it the way Stephanie did. I have been known to say things like "Me and Molly are in a fight because she is insisting on being more angry with Alice then Ian." Or that a plot line won't work "Because Jon would never do that, and is yelling that its stupid."

When I think about this, it comes from RPing. Me and Dany, the girl I spent the most time writing with, would have conversations that would sometimes turn into real time dialogue, and it translates well into a sensation of being a mouthpiece for the character (instead of the other way around, which is usually the case). So it comes naturally when I talk about writing to say things like "Well, Will said this," as if he had actually said it. Does this mean I actually think he said it? No. Its just the way I say it -- the dramatization of my internal dialogue. 

Internal dialogue, you say, are you sure you're not talking to voices in your head? Okay, so dialogue might imply too many voices in this, but when I say it what I really mean, is the creation of my own stories. I am writing constantly -- whether it be physically on a keyboard, or long hand, or in my head -- I always have something going on in my head, editing and reediting what I will finally commit to paper. Sometimes its stories, sometimes its dialogue, but always its thinking about stories and how they work. 

Anyways, I have finally arrived at my point, if I ever had one, and its this -- the creative process.

I usually start my novels blind -- which is to say I have no idea what's going to happen at the end. This has the interesting effect of making me wandering around in the creative space not sure of where I am going until something happens.

For example, in my NaNo I started with five characters, meandered about with them in space, and let them figure out where they were going. It lead to a wedding, a shot out, the mechanic losing a hand (this I struggled against, but then realized I could use it to my advantage), the decision to bring on new blood, and a rushed stop on a planet that the captain shouldn't have been on. If I had plotted this out, there is no way any of this would have happened. I would have had them struggle about, trying not to be Firefly.

So, this is a good plan, you say. This is the way you write your novels? Well, unfortunately, the problem with not having a plot line to follow is you end up relying on the characters to come to a climax naturally and for the most part, character's don't want to. Have you ever wanted to get involved in a giant fight, or reveal that your society is really overshadowed by an alien influence? The natural tendency is to move away from that, and when I write blind, the story goes places, and you realize things, but the characters do too -- and they want to get the hell away from it.

My most successful novels have been written with an end in mind. Not a clear end I should point out, but rather a conversation, or moment that is clearly a climax, but unconnected to the beginning. I get this idea, this rough plan for what it could be, and then I begin to work backwards, vaguely, from that point plotwise, until I figure out the starting point. Then I write forwards from there, allowing the characters to struggle forward to the ending and denouement.

This vague way of writing, trying not to get too strict on actual conversations and required plot lines allows for the fluidity of the first sort of writing, while also preventing the characters from running amok and avoiding the climax that is preordained. Its a method that I think works well for me, and allows me to create an outline that I can then deviate from by a lot.

In terms of giant, overarching writing, this is my process -- the way I create stories for my characters to inhabit. But characters are the real concern here, as evidenced by my rambling beginning. I talk a lot about how the plot is driven by the characters -- so they are clearly important in some way.

How does character creation go about? What is that process like?

Funny, this whole post was about that, but I still don't know how to answer this question. Character's don't just walk into my head fully formed, but they do come partially formed. The analogy I would use is clay models but with their faces only vague notions of what they should look like, their legs stuck together and arms not fully formed. They come to me unfinished and its my job to find out more about them by writing. The interesting thing is, while writing, they inform me of things. No, not like a crazy person listening to them, but rather via me writing something I didn't realize would come out. Back stories begin to materialize as I move through their worlds.

I have an explanation for this intuition for my character's lives -- practice. Perhaps you have never experienced this, or perhaps you will recognize this feeling -- the brilliant shock of when something that was off hand and unimportant in the first character, suddenly appears in the last chapter as something very important to the plot. You didn't know it was going to be important -- it was put in by accident, or as a character defining moment, or something, but suddenly its important. That feeling is one of the best and for me, tends to happen a lot with characters. Personality ticks that didn't make sense at the beginning, are suddenly defining and important. The intuition that comes from reading a lot (its why everyone says to read as much as possible when you want to write) and writing a lot (which is the other thing) informs your subconscious of what is important and what is not, and will connect things your conscious mind would never have guessed at.

So yes, once again I get to harp on about practice, but it is important, it makes these moments possible, it makes the characters be different from yourself whereas at the beginning they might have been. Practice gives you a lot.

Now, back to the beginning for a moment if I may. My creative process is based on this intuition, and I believe from the quote that was being made fun of, Stephanie's process is similar (wow, some one who I like who hates Twilight made me sympathize with Stephanie? Eesh. Not her best post I guess? Then again, I don't have to agree with her always). It makes us dramatic, and feel like our characters are out of our control. But feeling doesn't imply that they are out of control, just conscious control.

And now on with our regularly scheduled programing (the joke being we don't have any here).