My MC (main character) typically begins as a one dimensional creature. For instance: MC is A Bad Guy, he does bad things, he's unkind, selfish... you get the idea. There. I have everything I need to start writing – a basic plot for a story and a fairly non-descript MC.
Now I just find a cozy spot and start writing. What comes to me comes to me, and I don't get to stop it, I follow my mind wherever it decides to take me. I follow blindly along wild tangents and random thoughts that spring to life with this brainstorming/freewriting experience. I don't look back. I don't try to force myself down paths that haven't shown themselves. I simply write and write and write until I'm sick of freaking writing. Then I put it aside and go find something to do, like watch an episode of Family Guy, my all time favorite way to decompress into a brain dead bobblehead.
Well, ok. Not every episode will have the effect, but I think they made this just to prove me wrong. Point made. Moving on...
The next day, I take a look at what I have written, and an outline starts to develop in my head. I circle what I think works well but don't delete anything, regardless how irrelevant or elementary it may seem. You never know what may become an integral part of the story later, so erase and delete are unallowed! I typically copy what I've chosen to work with and paste it into a new document with.
Now, I have a fairly solid of where my story begins; I have an idea where I'm headed at that point, and that gives me a focus.
Awesome, right?
My favorite post of writing is how the characters naturally start to evolve as the story progresses and becomes multifaceted, multidimensional.
If you've get to have a viable basis for your MC or other key characters and need that prior to proceeding, the following items will help you get started:
So, I'm currently in the last phases of a short story in writing for an anthology, and I'm deep into this story. It's alive and breathing.
I originally wrote this in first person point of view (POV) with a MC that is a bright, responsible orphaned teen that had a slight southern draw. Yet, the more I got into the story, the more I played with the southern slang, which I'm well versed in because I grew up in the south, and suddenly I had a smart little teenager with a very thick southern draw.
She became incredibly adorable and I feel right in love with her. The accent and slang added some light to a dark story, even a bit of comic relief here and there. And you start to think... Well, well well, look at this little gem we pulled out of random thoughts and wild, flying ideas. This right here just might be the best big thing...
Now, as first person POV, I realized I'd have to write the entire piece the way the MC would see and say it, and that was a bit too hillbillish for what I was trying to achieve.
So then the story telling itself evolved. Keeping the story with the original POV would have given readers the wrong image. They are intelligent, young adults dealing with a dark adult topic.
I can't effectively deliver the story correctly if all they see is this :
I went with the obvious: I changed the POV to third person, and have redone what I have written so far to reflect that change. It's enhanced the piece remarkably, and not the story is spilling into the paper effortlessly, as if I'm recalling a memory. truly amazing the direction this change has taken the story.
The Point?
Don't be rigid when your write. Don't convince yourself you're not allowed to deviate from the original plan, no matter how hard you worked on creating one. Let those moments of epiphany play out and see what happens. You might just find a happy little surprise when it's all said and done.
Happy writing!
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