When my writing partner and I were hard at work on Martinis with Mom, we were both clicking away on our laptops and she suddenly looked at me and said, “Jessie had a baby when she was sixteen.”
I was shocked – Jessie is very pragmatic and now in her late 30’s – where did this kid come from? And where is the kid now?
And how the heck did that happen??? Well, obviously I know how it happened in the biological sense, but that was nowhere in our book discussion.
“It happened and it was a baby girl who is now twenty-one years old.”
This is how a character can take you places you hadn’t thought about and in this case it worked out perfectly for the book. But beware – if Jessie had tried to join a motorcycle gang just to experience the wild side of life, we could have put the brakes on that move. Sometimes you have to listen to where your character wants to take the story – and sometimes you just have to reel them back in and say, oh hell no.
It’s a slippery slope. If your character shows you something you hadn’t expected and it works, go with it. If it doesn’t work, send your character to a time out. Eventually they’ll stop pouting and get back in line with the story.
Martinis with Mom and Martinis at the Ranch are available on Amazon, Kindle, and Ibooks.
Follow me on Twitter @dmorganbooks or contact me by email at dmorganauthor@gmail.com
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