I\u2019ve been penning fiction now for just two and a half years and I\u2019m learning a lot about the process. I marvel at how a whisper of an idea can develop into a cogent story with the proverbial beginning, middle, and end.<\/p>\n
I have to chuckle during the early stages of my stories as I create new characters and sculpt them into likable or maybe detested individuals. I laugh when I move characters or mess with their emotions on a whim. I wonder if other novelists feel a sense of power when they delete a scene, rewrite dialog, or even change the demeanor of a key player in the story.<\/p>\n
There are a lot of decisions to be made as a story takes shape. There\u2019s the who, where, why, and how elements, of course. But also hundreds of minute issues to deal with in every scene, every bit of dialog, every innuendo.<\/p>\n
And once the story is told, there are details galore that still need attention. Was Savannah already standing when Colbi said that or was she still seated? Did I allow enough time in the sequence for the scene to play out the way I wrote it? Where are the characters standing when the action takes place? Is Rags (the cat) getting enough to do in this chapter?<\/p>\n
Some say a story is never finished. This is true when you consider all the possible scenarios for the story you\u2019re writing. You might finish it one day and do a major rewrite the next. Someone else reading it might suggest a very different conclusion or method of reaching that conclusion. I\u2019ve known authors who worked on a novel for twenty years\u2014continually changing the way they told the story.<\/p>\n
While that isn\u2019t me\u2014I can finish a novel in a matter of a few months\u2014I still spend a lot of that time massaging my stories. I mold and manipulate the characters, their emotions and their issues until they are telling what I believe is a poignant, important, or entertaining story.<\/p>\n
How do you do it?<\/p>\n