Totem Pole of Control in Writing

I imagine plenty of people think the story is the writer's. Nothing happens in the story unless the writer wants it that way. However, that's definitely not what happens. No, the characters yank the story from your hands, then run off with it and do whatever they jolly well please.

While reading an issue of Writer's Digest recently, I saw a great example of this. There was an author who, when signing books, would often write, "I'm sorry about Page 194. I tried to talk her out of it." And he insisted that was really the case; he wanted the story to go one way, but the character did something totally different.

So what is this 'totem pole' described in the title, and what does it consist of? Well, allow me to explain. And no, I'm not winning, as I'll soon discuss.

Conversations With My Brain

In case you thought my only problem was characters, I'm here today to tell you, nope, it's not. In fact, my brain seems to be a wealth of randomness, especially when it comes to blurting crazy things out. Below are a few things dedicated to my insane brain.

Double Jeopardy

My friend and her mother had just moved into a new house, and one night they decided to play the Jeopardy video game. They were having quite a time, until a knock sounded on the front door. They answered it, and to their surprise, a police officer was there. He said there was a report of hearing yelling from the house.

"No, we were just playing a game. Everything's fine." her mother said in confusion.

Once the police officer made sure there was nothing wrong and had left, she turned to my friend. "Were we really being that loud?"

Later on, they found out that the landlord's wife was hearing their frustrated shouts at the game, and had become concerned enough to call someone to check it out. Not at all awkward... 

Realities of World-building

I imagine there's lot of people who think world-building is a simple process. Unfortunately, it's not that simple. In fact, it's often more like trying to get somewhere by running in a hamster wheel, or walking up an escalator that's moving down.

Why is it this difficult? Well, the plot keeps changing, the setting keeps changing, the characters are disagreeing with you, the research you did blew your plans to smithereens, and a rubellius fire-drake set fire to your carefully-compiled notes.

Below are a few examples of why I'm not done world-building yet.

Signs Your Characters Are Stalking You

As we delve into our stories, our setting, our world-building, we sometimes find ourselves discovering things related to our stories when we're not even searching for them.