Characters - Set Them Free

I was editing a story the other day. Replacing what I knew had been there in earlier drafts. Someone suggested that it would save time if I just cut and paste from the earlier version. Uh, no. The characters are different people than those early days. They've grown and lifted from one dimensional ideas to three dimensional people that will direct their own life thank you very much. What was written in the past no longer fits who they have become. To change who they are now would turn their well ordered world into a mess - rather like a collage gone amuck.

In the latter stages of a story it sometimes feels that as author I have been relegated to recorder. Even though the story has a structure and a direction that even the characters can't mess with, they definitely have their own opinions.

So that voice in my ear might not be real but right now it thinks it is. And the other voice - that's just the ceaseless wind. Winter is not done with us yet and everyone appears to be griping about it. From the manager I shared the elevator with this morning to the delivery person this afternoon. But winter may be about to end as suddenly as it began late last year. From double digit negative to above zero in the space of a day or at least that's what the weatherman is forecasting in just a few days.
You've got to love that! It might even be one long, hot summer. I look forward to the battle of the air con. He flicks it on. She flicks it off. Ah, but that's another post.

In the meantime I dream of wearing flipflops again - soon.

Ryshia
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