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On Stories
Nov. 22nd, 2006 07:10 pmHave been discussing the nature of stories with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
marmaladecat on the way home from work. I know a lot of people on my friends list write, and was wondering if anyone else has come across the following phenomenom:
You'll be writing away, and suddenly one of your charecters will say or do something that you had never considered, but you know straight away is the truth. This will either shed light on something or make you see things in a completely new light. And you'll swear blind you never saw it coming.
Case in point - The last major thing I wrote was a fairly derivative fantasy. The main charecter was the bastard daughter of the former king who was called up to save her kingdom from invasion. There was an old legend that said her family could ask the help of dragons in times on need, only no one had seen a dragon for hundreds of years. So off she goes to find them. Towards the end of the story (we're talkign about 3/4s of it), she has reached the lands of the dragons and starts halluincating. She says she can hear singing. Her companion tells her he can't hear anything. A voice behind him answers "Of course you can't dear, you're not a dragon."
Now until that point, the heroine wasn't the bastard love-child of a dragon and a human, she was as human as everyone else, they way I pictured her. But as soon as that line was said, I knew it was true. And I started to see evidence of it further back: she was taller, stronger than someone of her age and gender. She had control over animals and an episode of bloodrage. But it was only looking back in the light of that statement that I saw it.
Another example. In my current story, there are several points that I know very well. I know exactly who is where, what happens, what is said. Then there are other bits that are murky. I know for example, that there will be a point where Michael and Zephyr go off to pay a visit to Miranda. I know what happens then, I know what is said between various charecters. However I didn't know why it would just be those two charecters. Given the fact that Michael really can't stand Zephyr, it didn't make a lot of sense. I put it out of my mind, and carried on.
An earlier scene involves the group stopping at a Folk wedding. This scene isn't one I planned, it was just a step between events I did know about. However, when thinking about, several events and conversations were suddenly clear. The most important one was Michael's attempted rape of Saffron. And it was after writing that that the later events made sense.
I love these sudden revelations. They make me feel like I'm not making something up as I go along, but uncovering something slowly, like an archeological excavation. There's something whole, but buried in front of me, and while some bits are clear, others need to be gently revealed. And then suddenly it will all become clear.
marmaladecat on the way home from work. I know a lot of people on my friends list write, and was wondering if anyone else has come across the following phenomenom:You'll be writing away, and suddenly one of your charecters will say or do something that you had never considered, but you know straight away is the truth. This will either shed light on something or make you see things in a completely new light. And you'll swear blind you never saw it coming.
Case in point - The last major thing I wrote was a fairly derivative fantasy. The main charecter was the bastard daughter of the former king who was called up to save her kingdom from invasion. There was an old legend that said her family could ask the help of dragons in times on need, only no one had seen a dragon for hundreds of years. So off she goes to find them. Towards the end of the story (we're talkign about 3/4s of it), she has reached the lands of the dragons and starts halluincating. She says she can hear singing. Her companion tells her he can't hear anything. A voice behind him answers "Of course you can't dear, you're not a dragon."
Now until that point, the heroine wasn't the bastard love-child of a dragon and a human, she was as human as everyone else, they way I pictured her. But as soon as that line was said, I knew it was true. And I started to see evidence of it further back: she was taller, stronger than someone of her age and gender. She had control over animals and an episode of bloodrage. But it was only looking back in the light of that statement that I saw it.
Another example. In my current story, there are several points that I know very well. I know exactly who is where, what happens, what is said. Then there are other bits that are murky. I know for example, that there will be a point where Michael and Zephyr go off to pay a visit to Miranda. I know what happens then, I know what is said between various charecters. However I didn't know why it would just be those two charecters. Given the fact that Michael really can't stand Zephyr, it didn't make a lot of sense. I put it out of my mind, and carried on.
An earlier scene involves the group stopping at a Folk wedding. This scene isn't one I planned, it was just a step between events I did know about. However, when thinking about, several events and conversations were suddenly clear. The most important one was Michael's attempted rape of Saffron. And it was after writing that that the later events made sense.
I love these sudden revelations. They make me feel like I'm not making something up as I go along, but uncovering something slowly, like an archeological excavation. There's something whole, but buried in front of me, and while some bits are clear, others need to be gently revealed. And then suddenly it will all become clear.
