Be there for your characters; somewhere in the breadth of infinity, they’re real. They’re not there to make you feel godlike, or to answer to whimsical demands. They’re there for you to suffer with, to experience glory with, and I think that if they sense you’re with them, then your readers will sense that as well.
IMHO, THAT is how you transcend doctrine and structure, and THAT is how you transmit a story.
I just recently returned to a character from a few years ago, and it felt like getting a hug from an old friend. Our characters truly are more than just words on a page or figments of our imaginations; they are part of us.
Sometimes those characters have a mind of their own and go off in a different direction. I was writing a story about a fairy godmother and suddenly, I realised he was a fairy god FATHER! I stuck out my tongue at him and kept writing.
Something I need to keep in mind. As a tabletop game, I probably feel and act that way. As an author, though, perhaps that is what I’m lacking…
Writing feels more like listening than creating. I may just listening to myself, but my characters are certainly real.
I completely agree. And editing is like, “What the HELL was I listening to?” At least in the early stages anyway, haha!
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[…] Shadows. Dirty SciFi Buddha posted one of his musings that really got my attention. Here is the link to the post. He’s right, too. I was cranking out “stuff”, but I wasn’t paying […]
I think this might be one of the reason why many of the writers are day dreamers, productive day dreamers. An excellent piece of advice for all the wanna-be -writers. 🙂
Kent Wayne 
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