I'm not a planner. I hate control so much that when I make my own list of to do's, I avoid it. Over the years, I've had many teachers and fellow writers who talk about outlining their plot, building the novel planned piece by planned piece.
I've written all my life, but in the last two years, I've finished two novels and am revising them now. I have a third underway. What has inspired me is learning to allow my characters to tell the story. Rather than be a puppeteer who hopes that no one notices the strings - or the man behind the curtain exposed by the little dog, I try to let the story evolve and grow as the characters evolve and grow.
I recently read Stephen King's book "On Writing. I highly recommend it to all of you. He talks about putting characters into a situation and seeing what they do and writing it down. When I read that, a chime went off in my head. I do that. And the more I do that, the better my story becomes. I may go as far as thinking about a thumbnail sketch of what happens next, but I never do more than announce to my characters that this is next obstacle you will have to overcome if you want to reach your goal.
I do have a fairly clear picture of what my character wants to accomplish by the end of the story. However, how he gets there, and how I might get there, how Dorothy would get there, or how any other character I've ever created would get there are all different matters.
For me, this is where the joy in the creative process comes from. I can get lost in these events as they happen for hours at a time. Mornings, afternoons and evenings disappear as I watch characters emerge as people and the people make their own decisions about what they should do and why.
The crafting process - which is how I think of editing. Has become a pleasure, too. When I go back, I can sculpt the raw scene and make it look more and more truthful for my character. I can take away the flaws that popped up through my inaccurate fingers. If I allow the character and his purpose to remain true - real - truthful - then the story emerges as I cut out the stuff that doesn't belong.
I think of the editing process in terms of an old joke I heard:
"Do you know how to sculpt an elephant?"
"How?"
"Get a big block of stone and chip away anything that doesn't look like an elephant."
That's how I approach the crafting process, but only after the story is written - only after I possess the big block of stone.
Bob Vogel
Knoxville
October 5, 2014
