PORCH PONDERINGS

Freedom of Choice

Does your character ever have a mind of its own? Well the other day mine did. I am participating in NaNoWriMo. I am starting to write a little story I had figured out. Happily typing away, my one character is doing his thing as I had envisioned, Suddenly he takes a turn I didn't have in the script.

WHAT? I started laughing and had to get up from the computer. I walked away and my husband had to ask "What is going on?" Then of course, I had to tell him the person in my novel is doing something weird, something I was not aware of, how dare he!

Then my husband is totally confused. "You have control of that. You did it."

So that statement got me to thinking. Do we actually have control of our imaginations as we write? Should we change what comes if it is not what we had first planned to happen?

I think not. I propose that imagination be left to wander in the mists of our mind, take the twists and turns of the gray matter of our brains. Let the neurons fire and release the chemicals that produce memories, or however that works. Perhaps that is a great oversimplification of the physiology of it all. But I digress.

I am going with the detour the character took. He had a good idea and I am running with it. He may be penalized for having this idea, Serves him right.