Listening to Your Characters

Monday, August 23, 2021

 

Sunday’s sermon talked about God as the potter and we, His creations, as the clay. We can’t tell Him what to do, although we try anyway.

Fiction works like that, too. I create the characters, and I get to tell them what to do. But sometimes they have a mind of their own. When that happens, it’s my job to decide whether to let them follow it.

And sometimes I do.

God also lets us follow our own way sometimes. But no matter why He does so, one thing is clear: God knows us better than we know ourselves.

And that’s where the analogy breaks down.

Two weeks ago I mentioned that the fatal flaw I had tried to give my protagonist wasn’t working. In a sense, she was telling me that I didn’t understand her, that even though she liked being with her friends, she loved her family more. So I will try to listen more carefully when I write the second draft.

Because sometimes the characters know themselves better than I do.


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