Has this ever happened to you?
I sat down last night to finally write this scene that has been going through my head since I started my work in progress. It was there from the very first outline, and it was supposed to be a definitive scene where two of my main characters get together. In my mind, I’d always imagined this scene as mildly romantic and more than mildly hot. It’s YA, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to go too into detail, but I wanted some warm blooded heart pounding in any case.
SO, I’d done a dry run of how this scene was supposed to go, over and over again in my mind and last night I finally got to the point in the book where it takes place.
I started writing and…it was like something else just completely took over. I ended up with a final product that was so far away from what I originally imagined. The scene turned into something much more emotional that I had intended and instead of a hot romp in the hay with a ‘eureka, I want you!’ moment, the characters share this really emotional scene where she blubbers into his shirt and he consoles her. Of course, their feelings for each other are plain, but They don’t even KISS! Wtf?
I mean, I’m happy with the scene and the kissing will come, I was just completely taken by surprise at how it played out when I had spent so much time writing it differently in my head.
Have you ever imagined a scene one way, and then have it take on a mind of its own once you sat down to write?
Why do you think this happens?
23 comments:
Pardon me while I chuckle a bit. Seriously, this happens to me all the time. I have it all planned out in my mind how a scene should go and poof! it changes.
Why? I have no clue. The voices in my head obviously have watched the scene in my mind, conversed with each other and said, "Yeah, she's so not writing that." So they end up taking over and force me to write the REAL scene, the way they want it to go.
Wonder if I should call an exorcist?
I feel more like I'm taking dictation from an invisible muse than I am actively creating anything myself.
What's frustrating (to my ego) is that the new, unexpected bits are usually better than what I had planned to do.
Have you ever 'been in the zone' writing furiously only to finish and not know what you've just written?
Oh yeah, this for sure has happened to me! Usually it's exactly what is needed and wanted.
Hmm, never to this much of a degree, probably because I'm too much of a control freak.
That being said it doesn't sound like a bad thing. If the scene almost wrote itself my guess is that it will work really well.
Thanks for sharing CQG!
Today's guest blogger is Michelle McLean!
Yes that has happened to me...many times, and I love it!!
Without us knowing it, our lives--family, work, what have you--although #1 important, clog that subconscious creative line sometimes. I think that flush of a scene comes from when we *let go* of everything else.
Absolutely! It's because the character's tell you what they want to happen:)
This happens to me all the time, even during edits of later drafts. I could be editing something, and suddenly one of my characters starts talking and taking the scene somewhere else. And you what? He's right. The scene is so much better for it. No wonder I have a crush on him. ;)
I've never written a book or anything but I used to do text role playing over on Yahoo! and I would write a scene or plan to write with another player and we would plan out what we wanted to happen but sometimes when it came to the writing it would not go as planned but turn out totally rad. We blamed (or attributed) this on muses and the characters themselves. :)
It's so funny how this happens, but I think ya'll are right in that it's better when we let the scene go where it wants to go. Why this is, I don't know. Maybe because we see the stale outline of where our story is headed but it isn't until we're sitting down with the characters that they decide to change their way of getting there. Still astounds me though.
I love it when that happens.
This to me all the time. I'm pretty sure it's because my characters are the ones who dictate to me what they want to do. I have no problem with that until they decide they don't want to move to the next room and they start chucking tantrums and won't let me do anything.
yeah this happens to me. I think it's due to my drunken muse falling off her barstool or something
Yeah this happens to me ALL the time and I LOVE it. It's like reading someone elses book. I find it so exciting, not only becasue I surprise myself, but becasue that mean I got spare material I can still use! LOL
Its happens to me too. At first I find it frustrating (especially if I think my initial idea was a good one) but usually, I end up liking what I have better.
You're definitely not alone.
Good topic. My experience is limited to blogging, but yes, I'll have an idea that morphs into something else as I begin typing.
It does happen to me a bit but not to the extent of what you've just said! How cool is that?
Oh yeah. This happens to me all the time. Or I'll look at my notes and see one sentence about what's supposed to happen, and 2500 words later, that thing FINALLY happens.
I don't know how that happens either. It's magic, maybe.
This happens to me all the time and I end up loving it!!! I am even doing it in the middle of revising, I think I liked it one way but when I begin to write my fingers have a mind of their own and type in the words that I should have wanted a long time ago!
I'm with Elana... I think it's magic!
Absolutely, this happens to me often! Sometimes I like what shows up on the page better, but other times I struggle trying to force what's in my head onto the page!
I think this happens because writing has a mind of its own!
Hell yes! The ones that catch the writer him/herself by surprise will most def catch the reader by surprise!
Oh yeah and there is a blog award for you over on my page :)
i agree with all the other writers who say it's the characters telling you the direction your writing should go in.
i think that's an incredible litmus test - when i don't have to think up every sentence i write, but when the writing flows as if i'm taking dictation.
All the time! I don't know why it happens, but I think it's a good thing. It means your characters are much stronger than you think. So strong, they steal your story!
I can't plan out scenes. Honestly. If I plan out a scene, no matter how many times I've run through it in my mind, no matter how many notes I have, no matter if I have an outline or not, I guarantee that the scene won't go the same way.
But I think that's when writing is the most fresh, the most real. Sometimes planning things out leaves the writing stagnant and feeling forced. If I just let my characters tell their story, I find that I write a much better story than I set out to do.
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