In Today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* Musings on Characters
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“[The character-discovery] means of character writing provides you with a naturalistic development of personality that’s difficult to beat. It can also be very efficient, because anything that doesn’t impact the story is never established….” Joseph R. Lallo, author of “dozens of novels and novellas, including [an] international bestseller” (see first item in Of Interest).
Musings on Characters
I love the above quote, and of course I cherry-picked it from the first article referenced in Of Interest. I did that because it speaks directly to one major benefit of writing into the dark.
As you read the article, read it through your x-ray glasses. I’m not saying read between the lines; I’m saying read the lines closely to discern their true meaning.
For just one example, I especially like the second sentence of the quote. When you simply “discover” (encounter) your characters as the story unfolds, “… anything that doesn’t impact the story is never established.”
That’s a roundabout way of saying when you simply encounter your characters naturally vs. constructing them, nothing will happen as a result of that encounter that isn’t or won’t be part of the story that’s unfolding as you write it down.
Because the story is like real life. You aren’t constructing the characters or the story, so you have no preconceived expectations. You’re letting the story unfold as it will, naturally. You aren’t responsible for the story. You’re only recording it.
Letting characters simply appear and then reveal their personality, strengths, and weaknesses over time as the story unfolds is exactly how we encounter and learn about real people in real life.
What could be more realistic than that?
When you encounter and learn about new people naturally in real life, that is you living your own life story. The same is true for your characters in their life story.
In the article, Joseph also talks about “sketching” characters. That’s for plotters who require unilateral control of every aspect of the story, usually before they even begin writing.
I personally can’t think of anything more boring. Of course, that also goes to my own personality. I’m a stubborn, unapologetic, alpha-male kind of guy. So my own course through life as a writer is a simple progression:
- I won’t allow anyone or any unreasoning fear to control me, and
- I won’t accept the massive responsibility that comes with controlling others, so
- Why in the world would I want to construct and then control my characters?
As I’ve said before, the sometimes overpowering desire to construct characters and storylines block by precious block—vs. letting characters and events occur and unfold naturally—is always the result of an unreasoning fear of failure.
In fact, I defy anyone to give me even one irrefutable reason that isn’t the result of unreasoning fear for constructing and controlling characters or storylines.
Each time a fiction writer sits down to face a blank page, each writer decides for himself or herself whether to bow to unreasoning fear.
And I’ll venture to say that we who don’t bow to that fear enjoy writing fiction a great deal more than those who do. We and our characters and stories are unconstrained. Literally anything can happen, just as it does in real life.
As my Blackwell Ops characters are fond of saying, in real life no plan succeeds first contact. Or as boxer Mike Tyson put it, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” 🙂
Above I wrote that I won’t allow anyone or any unreasoning fear to control me. That doesn’t mean I don’t experience fear (unreasoning and otherwise).
But when I experience unreasoning fear, I see it as a personal challenge. In fact, I take it as a personal affront. It’s my own conscious, critical mind trying to bully me. I can’t allow that to happen, so I suppress or hide the fear and push on through.
After all, pushing through unreasoning fear is an accomplishment, and I love accomplishing things.
Not to mention I don’t have that big an ego, one that demands I control the life story of my characters. Controlling them isn’t my place. I’m just a writer. My job is to observe and write down what’s happening and the characters’ reactions to that as we race through the story.
Of course, in your world, you’re the writer, so all of that’s up to you.
You certainly can choose to construct and control the story vs. letting it simply unfold as it will (you know, like in real life).
Likewise, you can construct and control who the characters are and what they do vs. simply letting them appear and reveal who they are and do what they do as the story unfolds.
But if you are able to suppress the fear, push through it and Just Write, the alternative to constructing and controlling the story and the characters is nothing short of amazing.
Your stories will be more authentic, more realistic and exciting, and far less predictable. I can also pretty much guarantee you’ll feel a sense of pride for having won something outright, for having achieved an accomplishment vs. simply participating.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Three Ways to Develop Characters in Fiction
Author Websites Now Includes Easy-to-Use Email Tools
The Numbers
The Journal………………….. 900
Mentorship Words…………….. 0
Total Nonfiction…………………. 900
Writing of
Day 1…… XXXX words. To date………… XXXXX
Fiction for January………………………… XXXX
Fiction for 2026…………………………… XXXX
Nonfiction for January.…………………… 17050
Nonfiction for 2026………………..……… 17050
2026 consumable words………………… 17050
2026 Novels to Date……………………… 0
2026 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2026 Short Stories to Date……………… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 123
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 310
Short story collections……………………. 29