February 25, 2009
Characters in a developing work of fiction really do have minds of their own. Sometimes, they behave just the way I want them to, acting out their parts as predetermined in my outline or notes. Other times, they just take over and do what they feel like. It’s true, and it’s happening right now in my current novel. I started a scene two days ago, in which one character is acting out her grief by getting in the middle of a huge fight in a bar. The heroine/narrator was supposed to enter the scene and talk the grieving character out of fighting, after which the two would bond and grieve together. Instead of that approach, however, the characters took over, insisting on fighting each other until one of them was beaten unconscious. It turns out they both had so much baggage to deal with, much of it related to each other, that they just couldn’t walk away without pounding the crap out of each other.
But will I let the scene stand as written? For now I will. I think I’ll let it roll around in the back of my mind for a bit and see if a negative reaction develops in there. In a way, I like the scene as it is; I think it’s less cliched and more exciting. On the other hand, it leads to a lot of logistical problems that I’ll have to deal with in the plot. But some of those problems seem to be pointing to some interesting new events. So we’ll see. Those characters and their independent minds! One thing’s for sure: when they start thinking for themselves, it’s a good thing. It means the novel has some life in it.
Now for today’s photo from the travel archives! This one’s a shot of me on Haight Street, in the heart of hippie territory in San Francisco, California. As you can see from the photo, I was dressed for the part; I dressed like a hippie a lot back then, actually. This is another image from the cross-country trip I took with my pal Don back in 1987…our attempt at reliving Jack Kerouac’s famous novel, On the Road. What an experience that was; remind me to tell you about it sometime. See you tomorrow!
San Francisco, California, 1987
