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Wednesday, August 07, 2019

IWSG: Writing Surprises

It's hard to believe we're in the last full month of summer, isn't it? Welcome to the sweltering month of August. Rather than think about the heat, let's talk about writing and the Insecure Writer's Support Group. You can learn more about them on their website and Facebook page.
This month, our hosts are Renee Scattergood, Sadira Stone, Jacqui Murray, Tamara Narayan, and LG Keltner.

Here's our question for this month: Has your writing ever taken you by surprise? For example, a positive and belated response to a submission you'd forgotten about or an ending you never saw coming?

My characters tend to take me by surprise by going off in directions I hadn't foreseen. For example, in both my Catalyst Chronicles and Season Avatars series, I have secondary characters that I paired up with someone else but then fall in love with the main character. That gets very awkward, especially when the main character doesn't reciprocate. I know how to work it out in both series. In the case of the Catalyst Chronicles series, I've been blocked on a story that comes between Twinned Universes and the next book in the series, which I plan to call Catalyst in the Crucible. At least Catalyst in the Crucible will resolve the romance aspect for some of the characters. (Still not sure if some of the characters will get a match--or if they need one.) You'll have to read the entire Season Avatars series to find out what happens to my characters, but I have further adventures planned for them in the spinoff series.

Have your characters surprised you? Feel free to reply in the comments.
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6 comments:

  1. Alex J. Cavanaugh8/07/2019 4:48 AM

    That's love for you - unpredictable!

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  2. Sadira Stone8/07/2019 9:40 AM

    Well, I'm a romance author, so I know from the get-go who's going to end up with whom. Nevertheless, the characters often surprise me with backstory that enriches their journey to an HEA. I wish you happy writing in August!

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  3. emaginette8/07/2019 12:27 PM

    What fun. You gotta love it. :-)

    Anna from elements of emaginette

    ReplyDelete
  4. L. Diane Wolfe8/07/2019 7:20 PM

    Thank God all of my characters behaved and stayed paired with their respective mates.

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  5. Sandra Ulbrich Almazan8/07/2019 8:35 PM

    Thanks, Alex!

    Sadira, my characters apparently don't think I make a good matchmaker. Good thing I focus on science fiction and fantasy.

    Thanks, Anna!

    Diane, sometimes misbehaving makes for more conflict.

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  6. Steven Arellano Rose Jr.8/09/2019 2:29 PM

    When your characters catch you by surprise it's almost as if they had lives of their owb which is usually a good thing. It means your characters are that much more convincing. I try to allow that to happen to my own characters. The challenging part can be is making their actions all come together in the end to make the story conclude satisfactorily.

    ReplyDelete