Friday, October 15, 2010

Random Thought #31

"If you start with a real personality, a real character, then something is bound to happen; and you don't have to know what before you begin. In fact, it may be better if you don't know what before you begin. You ought to be able to discover something from your stories. If you don't, probably nobody else will."

-Flannery O'Connor

I read this quote today and loved it.  Sometimes as a story-starter, I write a story from the point-of-view of someone who completely opposes my perspective on the world... I never know if I'll find my way back to my perspective or end up "agreeing" with them.

It's a little bizarre not to know where we're going when we sit down at the keyboard, but the discovery's half the fun.

4 comments:

Hart Johnson said...

It's so funny to me how different writers are here. I think of a scene, and who might fit... write the scene to get to know the character, and then plot the STORY on how the character might respond to the scene... that space between character scene and plotting can be long... like MONTHS... but the character doesn't come at all until I have a setting for the action.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today--it brought me back here and it looks good!

Old Kitty said...

Oh and it's so weird when your character escapes your clutches and does his or her own thing and you just have to go with it and write what they want written!!

It's also weird when writing (or rather editing/revisions) are so painful I wish I didn't have the urge to write but this reminds me of how so much fun writing a story can be!

Take care
x

Jemi Fraser said...

Great quote! For me the joy of writing is the discovery. I'm so glad I don't know what's going to happen next :)

kah said...

I love writing randomly. It's so much fun to watch all the pieces magically snap into place. :) Great quote!