Somewhere along the road...

One of those things that can't be taught to writers but that has to be experienced is the moment when your story first comes to life.

A writer will think up a story and imagine it in its finished glory. He was do the research and create the characters. He might write a synopsis or take notes. And then he will start writing - long, laborious nights in front of a keyboard imagining everything in a story from setting to dialog to action to motivation. This is the hardest stretch for a writer because the story is all work at this point.

But at some point, there is a subtle shift. You see a moment that you hadn't seen before - a change in a line of dialog or a character doing something that you hadn't imagined them doing. You write the words and voila, suddenly the story is vastly improved and much clearer - like you've reached a summit and can see the entire world before your eyes. It doesn't mean you don't have to keep working, but the path is all downhill from that point.

The story comes alive. It's characters start to breathe, to suggest words and actions to you. As a writer, you had trouble before remembering what came next in the story - you constantly referred to your notes - then, like a light switch being thrown, you now know the whole story, all the characters, and how they will face each challenge you throw at them.

The next step in the process is my absolute favorite - its the point where you have to tell your characters to shut up so that you can finish the story. Your characters will continue pounding your brain for bigger scenes, greater dialog, and grander and more glorious finishes. It makes for fun speculation, like fans at a Comic Book convention arguing over who would win a fight between the Millennium Falcon and the USS Enterprise, but it doesn't necessarily make for a good story. At some point you have to remember that you are the writer and they are the characters and that you are in charge. Such is the problem when your independent creations take on lives of their own.

Anyway, I'm feeling pretty good about my story right now. The heroes have moved on from Saipan. If you'd like to know their next destination, you can keep track of it on my facebook page by checking to see where I currently reside.

(For the rest of you, here's a little homework... its July, 1937. You're in Saipan. Where would you go next, nearby to Japan, where some sort of historical turmoil is about to break out. HINT: The answer is worth an awful lot of tea.)