Writing Blog

20231120 NaNo XXIII

November 20, 2023, 8:15pm

Well... that got messy... briefly.

Following on from yesterday...

It was indeed a third option - the world found out about the MC and the singer because some dipshit TV personality took a photo and sold it to a newspaper. But very few believe that her - a waitress! - would be kissing someone like Dion Le Croix, chart-topping singer. Just a look-alike, they say. But some do know, and her boss has asked she not go to work because too many regulars want to check it out...

But Dion makes it right by being seen with a soapy star and paying her rent for a year...

And Frank is really pissed that for a second time the MC has made out with "his" singer...

So it looks like there is not even a HFN ending.

But the story is not over and these characters are still up to something.

My 25k word estimation is either going to be right and the story ends here... or the characters will annoy me tonight and it is going to be off...

Now, some have asked me how this can be, but I am serious. I feel like these characters are living lives of their own and I am their scribe. To plotters, this must seem strange, I know, but I do feel this does make my stories character-driven. I used to let events happen, and let stories happen as I wrote them, but since I started letting the characters drive things, I have been selling more and more work. Events and plot are all well and good, but if they do not happen to characters a reader can connect with, then it's just another meaningless story. You need both... and it took me almost 20 years to work that out.

20 years (starting in 1982... when I was 11) and finally allowing the characters free space and their own voice in my head. I had to let the characters drive everything. Without that... I'd still be pressing for that first short story sale, let alone the first book.

Character is so important. I cannot state that strong enough. Without characters, you're left with "things that happened."

Raven words: 86278
song muse story words; 23210
Daily words: 3747
Total words: 109491