Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Some Stimulating Simulating

I've been busy "simulating" for the past several days (pardon the computer term). I've blogged several times in the past months about the evolution of my writing process from a pure write from the hip style to a style that uses outlining to some degree. Well, one thing that I've returned to, as I work on the sequel to Hemlock and the Wizard Tower, is trying to "simulate" character arcs. This consists of imagining that I am one of the characters, and then, given a certain plot point and the information known by the character at that point, I try to imagine what that character would be thinking and how they would react to their circumstances.

I'm finding that, at times, these reactions are not what I had planned for in my outline. In other words, the course of action that I had planned for the character just isn't working when viewed from that character's perspective. Discovering issues like this is why I like to take my time when I write. I'd much rather figure out this type of problem in the development stage than after the manuscript is written. That's why re-writes happen, I think, and I don't want any parts of re-writes, if I can avoid them! I've always hated re-doing things...

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