bawdred

I have the plot landmarks in place as to where I want to go in the short run. The best analogy I can make is that you're standing in a field in a light fog. You can see the immediate key features in front of you, but the rest is obscured. As you move forward, the fog clears. That is enough to get me started. And then the rest, the fun part of the process, is where I end up, of course. I don't always know. If I get stuck, I always go back and review. That leads to new ideas, or sometimes, forces me to go back and correct the trajectory. The most thrilling thing is when the characters start to speak up. This doesn't always happen, but when it does, they take over. They're in my brain, having a total discussion, demanding to be part of the story. Even if a story is not successful, that part of it is just the best roller coaster ride in the world. And last, sometimes, more rarely, the map is already there, all worked out. It normally takes me a long time to map out plot points, so I'm very grateful when that's the case. I'm totally not organized. I don't do the good things like map out my characters ahead. I have a pretty good idea of who they are ahead of time. Some of the most ambivalent characters, I believe, would have really been ruined by this process. I never want to be in the position of having to say, "Well, she wouldn't do this!" So for me, a lot of the character creation happens within the story. They begin in skeletal form, and are fleshed out as time goes on.