Ever had these moments of sudden clarity where everything seems to fit perfectly? I had this secondary character lets call him Joe who had to be assassinated, for the sake of character development for my main character (Douglas). But I couldn't figure out by who he was killed or for what reason. I tried adding characters, but the motif for the crime was slightly stupid, and made the plot go in a new boring direction with no purpose. So I told myself to leave it a mystery, like something out of the story went down, but never explain it. and then one day, suddenly it came to me. another main character lets call him Bill, killed Joe. Bill had an obvious reason to kill Joe and was there at the right time. it was perfect, as if the story really did happen, and i just solved the case. it was, almost meant to be. it felt great. So does anyone out here had some kind of magic moment when everything falls in place? or am I the only one who think his story is truly alive?
Lol, definitely can relate to this. At one point I had three loose ends in my plot and couldn't for the life of me figure out how to make them all come together. I wrote myself into a corner I suppose you could say. I was close to scrapping the project but decided to give it one last read through and see if I could figure out something I hadn't considered. It was a complete accident, I read the wrong character's name in place of another character but it was enough to get the juices flowing again. What if I made him the killer instead of the original guy? It solved everything! It definitely was magical.
ahah! awesome, it feels so great when these things happen, when your story tells you to shut the hell up and listen to listen what IT has to say.
Something akin to this happened to me once, and was pretty funny because the problem kind of... resolved itself. Basically, I'd reached a difficult point in the story in that I couldn't seem to make character A's actions believable. He was in a sticky situation and nothing short of some radical MacGyvering would've helped him... that or the help of another character. Problem was that I forgot to provide another character who could've helped him in the story. I was thinking of scrapping the entire scene, which was pity because it otherwise fit really well into the story, but then decided to reread what I had up until then. Turned out that the story read as if there were a bunch of clues which pointed to character B being secretly on A's side, thus the helping character! What was amusing is that I hadn't consciously planted these clues and hadn't originally planned on B helping A at all. It was either a stroke of really good luck or ESP, heh.
Definitely! It actually happens all the time and with every idea I hatch. There was one occasion my character Johna(not his real name) was supposed act very hostile toward a man that shows up at the meet. I had been playing this scene in my head for a few days and I really wanted to include it, but...why does Johna act hostile and who is this stranger? As always, it takes me a few moments of zoning out and staring into space to hatch the egg. The stranger, Kal(not his real name), is synonymous to Pride and Prejudice's Mr. Darcy's "Mr. Whickam". If you're not familiar with P&P, Mr. Whickam is Mr. Darcy's foe. Johna and Kal have a history together—a not so splendid one—that gives reason to Johna's hostility. Additionally, I just love it when that "AH HA!" idea provides you with more conflict and ends that need tying. It makes the plot more and more elaborate(or deep). It's like writing a story over another story. (Layers! Hurray!) Happy writing!
I've had things like this happen, too. Sometimes it seems you're writing a story you didn't even know you were writing. I took a "workshop"/"class" at a local bookstore that was taught by a published writer. The writer also had attended other events at the store to discuss her books, including a meeting of our book club. Some people made comments like, "I was really surprised when Character X did such and such," and she would respond "Yeah, that surprised me, too." I was a little puzzled by that response at the time (as were others), but now I totally get it. I wrote a story that had an unexpected plot development and two people who read the story said they weren't expecting that to happen, and I also responded with, "Yeah, I didn't expect it either." They had the same reaction I'd originally had, and I knew I'd never really be able to explain it.
Totally recognise that feeling. I'm never certain who is in charge when I write.....Myself, as a kind of literary puppetmaster, or the characters (monsters?) I have created.
I love it when stories solve themselves. This has happened to me quite a few times... I see a few things in the story that I never connected for some reason, and all of the sudden it a huge part of the story makes sense. It's great.
Yep, that clarity comes to me quite a bit - almost always when I am away from the computer, usually half-asleep, and prone to extreme and drastic decisions that I'd never have the guts to actually do in my story. (And this all usually means I forget everything I learned from this clarity come morning.)
When I write without a thorough plan, it eventually falls into place. Usually I know how I want to start the piece. Then there's the point where you aren't writing as much as you had been because you're not sure what to write. No matter what, once you figure out where it's going, it "falls into place" like you said, for me. Not a specific plot point, but just overall. It's a nice feeling.
