When Your Characters Surprise You

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You always hear to let your characters tell their story and see where they take you. I used to think that sounded like a bunch of weird, writerly mumbo jumbo. But it's been happening to me lately.

I've been working on my young adult novel every day (a miracle in itself). I get anywhere from a thousand words to one sentence, but I make sure I get something down. Since I've always had a hard time finishing stories and holding my interest in them, my main goal with this novel is to just plow through the first draft until the end. I'm writing bad, bad embarrassing stuff like you're supposed to in your first draft. I'm not allowing myself to fix anything. I'm just writing.

And a cool thing just happened. I was writing a scene with my main character (a sixteen year old girl) eating breakfast with a couple of woman she'd just met. I had no idea where I was going with this scene, I just knew I wanted one of the woman to drive her to her next destination. While eating breakfast my mc asked how the two woman met, and they each gave such a funny response that I was actually excited to learn how they met. And I had to stop writing for the day so I still don't know. But that's a great feeling to look forward to what my characters will tell me when I get back.

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