Here Be Dragons

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a pantser – someone who doesn’t plot the stories before starting to write. This means I am often surprised at a direction my story goes, having never envisaged it in my head.

My characters can get quite insistent about wandering in a certain direction and can take me to places and situations I likely would never have got to, had I tried to plan out the story beforehand.

The concept of a character taking a story over had never occurred to me before I started writing, and on occasions when other writers talked about it happening to them, I was a little curious but had never experienced it for myself. As I prepare to publish my fourth book, I can assure you. It is a real phenomenon.

It happened first in my initial drafts of The Mage Wars. One of my side characters, who was only intended to be a decoration, demanded a much larger role. As I wrote, I found him appearing more and more and his personality began to take solid form. I liked him. I wanted to sit and talk with him and find out what his hopes and dreams were. Even now, as I write this, I can imagine a twinkle in his eye and a secret smile that he bestows only on me. I wish I could tell him off, but I haven’t the heart.

Recently, I wanted to start drafting the third book in my new series. Normally, I have a clear picture in my head of both the first scene and the last. This time, however, I was well and truly stuck. No picture, only a vague idea of what the book was even about, and no conclusion. Coupled with it was a stalling of my next book, The Infilling. After my beta readers had read it, they were dissatisfied and I know I have to do some major revisions, but I’m unsure where or how.

Some might call it writer’s block. Even my inconvenient muse had taken a holiday.

After chatting to a good friend via Discord, I decided to take my notebook into the back garden, sit in the wonderfully warm September heat, and simply start to write. I knew I wanted my MC to be doing a mundane chore, so I took him shopping. Three chapters later, I couldn’t believe what I had written.

First, my MC decided he was fed up with being the hero. He wanted out. Obviously, it would never happen, but I decided to let him have “a fit of the ploms” (Poor little old me’s.) as an old friend of mine used to call it. He took his frustration and anger out on those closest to him. So, they left.

I had never once entertained the thought of my trio breaking up, but shockingly they have, and now I have to run with it. Not only that, but they have inadvertently given me the theme for my story in the process. I still have no real idea where I will be going with it, and no ending to work towards for the first time ever, but I’m keen to see how it all unravels.

So why do these characters become so real, they dictate the action and direction of my novels?

I am a character-driven storyteller. Creating these imaginary people is something I love to do. Sitting at my desk, they start as 2D characters, but the main ones never stay that way. I give them back-stories, even if I never mention it. They have their own thoughts and feelings. Because of that, the way they react to situations is different to previous incarnations of mine. Reez would never steal a child’s lollipop, but Verrin would. Aydal has a way with the ladies that his brother, Damino, could never have.

Finn has issues. They have been buried deeply inside, but the journey he finds himself on is highlighting all his fears and hang-ups. He’s a gentle soul who suffers occasional panic attacks, so it’s no surprise that he would want to withdraw, especially after the trauma I put him through in the first two books. But I never realised it until I started to write.

If you find yourself in a similar situation, I highly recommend writing your draft by hand. It uses a different part of your brain than typing on a keyboard. It can spark your creativity, and free you from the dreaded writer’s block.

But be careful, as the inscription on old maps warned. Here be dragons! You never know what might be lurking out there.