Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

The Chicken or the Egg

The chicken or the egg?

As I write it often comes to mind, which comes first, the story line or the characters? I have no good answer to that. Sometimes when I sit down to write a story comes to mind but at other times it is the character I find myself struggling with. I suppose there is no real answer… they both happen and who really cares?

As I shadow write for my class I am on the last CRISIS. This is the vignette that is like the final exam in a sense. It is supposed to be about the climax to the story the students will be writing that will plug somewhere into the very end of the outline.

Anyway I know how the story is now going to come out and I am working on how the characters are going to handle it. A writer learns a lot about his/her characters at this juncture. In a fundamental sense that is… At the end of the Exploratory Writing Phase a writer has a fleshed out outline. There is still plenty of room for developing characters and expanding the framework.

The point is that it is no longer necessary to try and hold all that structure in mind and the author can focus now on crafting the work in manageable little chunks… and when the last chunk is finished write “The End”…. And have a seamless work that is not a hode-podge of this and that.