And Who, May I Ask, Are You?

And so the writing adventure begins!

I have been tirelessly poring over material concerning writing and how to go about writing a novel, and let me tell you, I have had quite a rough start. I couldn't quite decide how to begin my story bible, as it's called, which apparently is everything pertaining to the novel such as story plot, character descriptions, history of world religions, etc. Good grief, I wonder if Ursula K. Le Guin had this much trouble when she first started The Earthsea Cycle?

I decided to start with the character descriptions, since it seemed the easiest. Wrong! Of course, I had a general idea of what they would look like and how they would act, but generalities don't work well when it comes to novels. You have to become engulfed in the character's persona and feel their happiness, sadness, and everything else in between. Knowing what your character would say in any given situation, or the decisions he or she would make concerning anything major or minor, is critical in helping the audience to fully appreciate, understand, and empathize with the character his or herself.




So I set about diving into the minds and souls of the people of this world I was creating and it wasn't long before I lost interest in playing God. It felt kind of weird trying to make my main character be a certain way and act in a certain manner, instead of letting him just be who he really was. It was then that I stopped trying to drive this novel down the path that I wanted and let it simply unfold by itself as it was meant to be. Amazingly, the characters immediately came to life, each with their own separate identities and desires. I heard their voices and felt their presences all around me and in my dreams, telling me of how the story actually happened, from every view and every angle it could be seen. The world of my characters encompassed me, and it has since been hard to pull myself away from it.

I think this is what Miss Le Guin discovered, as well as all the other greats who have so deeply inspired us with their writings. We are not writers. We are transcribers; we listen and we write down what we hear. It seems so simple a fact that all I had to do was stop pretending to be a god in my own world and observe and listen instead. All I had to do, was wait and let Christion (my main character) tell me who he is.