When Characters Write Themselves

I've mentioned it here before but sometimes characters write themselves. I always thought authors were ... not really kidding but using hyperbole when they said that, but I'm telling you, that shit is for real. You'll find yourself writing something with absolutely no idea where it's coming from. The story will take off in a direction you never intended. They may be your fingers flying over the keyboard but the words don't seem like they're yours at all.

It can be ... disconcerting, to say the least. Disconcerting and yet, most of the time, awesome as all get-out.

The most recent example I have of this is the latest chapter of my current Once Upon a Time story. It's a series of sequential mid- and post-ep one-shots chronicling Emma finding a place to belong over the course of the first season. Little unseen moments between the scenes.

This conceit of mine became an issue when I got up to "Hat Trick." We spent most of the episode with Emma so unseen moments were few and far between, but there was too much good material within the episode for me to bypass it entirely. I rewatched the episode, found my span of unseen time, and started to write.

And what came out ... that was all Emma and Mary Margaret. It was not me at all. Believe me, I know how it sounds when I say things like that. These people don't really exist, and even if they did exist, they most certainly would not choose to have their conversations through, you know, me. But it does happen, and I don't know that it's something you can fully understand until it happens to you.

I certainly didn't understand it. Hell, it's happened to me more than a few times and I still don't understand it. But it's a real thing that happens and what it results in can be really cool.

Don't believe me? Check out the chapter below, entitled "Family By Choice." And believe me when I tell you that I have no freaking clue where this came from.

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The Trouble With Mainlining and Writing at the Same Time

I mentioned in my previous post that I had an idea for a pre-series Supernatural fanfic, one which I hoped would kickstart my creativity again so I could get back to work on The Witch of November. And I also mentioned that this idea came about because I'd been mainlining Supernatural for the better part of a month.

Well, there's been a little unanticipated problem with that: it seems I have been watching too much Supernatural for the idea as I had it to take off. Want to know why? Because Adult Boys have been talking at me for the last month or so, and that's making it difficult for me to find the proper voices for Wee Boys.

Now, don't get me wrong ... I tend to mainline while I'm doing fic. Mainlining is what helps me get the characters right (or as right as I can make them) in the first place. The issue is I've had various seasons of Supernatural on my television for over a month now, and very few of those episodes include flashbacks. Wee Sam and Wee Dean are, apparently, easier to find for me when I haven't been listening to Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles for a month straight.

But this doesn't mean I'm giving up on the fic. Oh no. It just means I have to set it within the series' timeline and make it a casefile fic instead.

Best I can figure, I should set it somewhere in the early part of season three. For story purposes, I need it set at the start of a school year. Season one starts in October/November of 2005, which is too late. The boys are occupied with Zombie Angela in late August/early September in season two. There is a small time jump, though, in season three between "Sin City" and "Bedtime Stories" that could work in my favor.

See? Really wasn't kidding with that "geek" thing.