I just so happened to be talking to my pal, Bill, the other day and he kindly agreed to stop by again. You see, he’d written this post, but thought it would be nice to post it on my blog – and, of course, I said yes! He poses a good question and I’m curious to see what you think about it. Oh, and he’s the author of a really good story – perhaps you’ve seen my review?
Behind the words
Often when I sit down to write I’ll bring my story up on the screen and at first glance it is just pages of words. Hit Ctrl + End and I’m where I left off yesterday. I go back a couple of paragraphs just to be sure I approve of what I wrote the last time I sat down at it. That’s when the images begin to develop.
Behind the words I see the faces and hear the dialog between my characters. I can feel their joy and happiness when things are going right for them. I can also feel the pain of their losses and tragedies. I know their fears and their realities. Realities? Yes, during these moments, it is all that exists.
During conversations, I am there participating in all sides of it. Does that make me crazy? No, don’t answer that. When you think about it though, you are formulating both sides of any argument between characters and you have feelings one way or another about the current topic of that conversation. Okay, I am crazy, or perhaps there are just those of us who can see both sides of the coin. Yeah, that’s it.
Conflict? Without conflict things would be rather bland. It is an aspect of our everyday lives and what makes a story so juicy. Like squeezing a ripe lemon, it sprays all over the place and gets everything all sticky. Then you have one hell of a mess to clean up. But because of it, you have a story that is convincing and riveting. As the writer of that story you are a part of that conflict. Hell, you have created that conflict and for some of us with just the right egos, that makes us Gods.
As a Writer or even a Reader, what do you see Behind the Words?
Bill Talcott is an everyday guy who has decided to try his hand at writing. He is the Author of The Mission and is currently working on the Shield of Health, the second book in the series, Remnants of the Past. He also has other projects on the back burner and is looking forward to becoming rich and famous soon. He would one day like to be rich enough to own and drive a Bugatti. Bill Talcott also finds it amusing to talk about himself in the third person.
You can find Bill all over the place but here are some links anyways. 
Musings of a Writing Reader 
I think you have to look deep otherwise your characters come off flat.
How true. Often, I have taken something I felt and used it to rewrite a scene that…well, like you said, came off flat. I have even seen a post on FB where a couple of writers were talking about how they have sat at their computers crying while writing a scene. Of course, yours truly is too much of a man to be caught crying . I usually close the door at that point so no one will see me.
I’ve often written scenes and the next day deleted them because they didn’t say what I felt my characters should. A couple of times, it’s taken several tries to get the wording just right, especially if it’s a pivotal scene. There’s always the chance that suddenly, the scene’s going to be taken out of your hands and end up in a completely unexpected way. That’s happened a couple of times, once actually resulting in the death of a character I’d had no intention of killing off. The original scene had nothing like that in it but suddenly, in mid-keystroke, I realized in real life, that was just what would happen. I even said aloud, “But I don’t want him to die.” Nevertheless he did, and—yes—I cried as I finished writing it. He was a main character and I had another future planned for him, which now would never happen.
This is interesting. You’ve made one hell of a sacrifice to make the story more than it would have been. When I wrote The Mission, I originally intended it to be a 20 or 30 page story to entertain my friends with. My characters were to go off on a mission and return home victorious. I will say that killing off my first character was a difficult decision but one that made the story what it is.
How can that make you crazy? If it does, I’m in the same class. I even know how they smell, the timbre of their voice, they are as plain as if they were right next to me.
I agree! I think you almost have to know your characters that well – how else will you get inside their heads!
Hello Mary. I understand completely. Darkblood and Legionnaire are characters I felt exceptionally close to.
Conflict is fun when you’re playing both sides of the game. The writer gets to be both villain and hero, pro- and antagonist. He sees both sides of the story but in the end he has to choose which character he’s going to back and make that one the stronger. The reader shouldn’t begin to like the villain too much (although they can love to hate him) or else at his downfall, if it comes, they’ll be so sorry it’ll spoil the story. My problem is that I enjoy being the villain too much and my heroes end up being “good” villains (is that a contradiction?)