b f oswald, click
here to update your pages on AuthorsDen.
Blogs by b f oswald
AN AUTHOR’S NOTE – THE VOICES WITHIN 9/17/2009 7:50:24 AM
About the contribution the characters in a book make to the direction they take in the story. During the twenty-five years I was a professor I authored two text books, numerous lectures, and volumes of student study aids. From time to time I would write an essay or a short story for the college literary magazine. By so doing I discovered that I enjoyed writing short fiction, that it provided a break from the sometimes tedious work of producing academic stuff, and, judging by the feedback I received, I was rather good at it.
One of the things I discovered early on was that soon after I had created my characters for a given story they seem to direct the scenarios in which they took part. If I tried to override this input, usually because they were taking the story in a unplanned direction, I would develop writer’s block.
I am a stubborn person, so it took me a while to accept this guidance. One of the reasons for this was that I couldn’t explain these ‘voices’ in my head. They were not clear as if hearing another person in the room with me, just a steady stream of ideas that were not mine originally.
Along with my academic work I had a private practice as a psychotherapist and obedient to the laws that governed my practice, I had a supervisor, a therapist’s therapist, in fact a number of them over the years. None pronounced me psychotic, and only one could offer an explanation for the phenomenon I described. When I brought my ‘voices’ to his attention, he smiled broadly and said he knew exactly what I was experiencing. He also wrote fiction as a hobby. His advice: go to writers' workshops, talk to other authors. He said that I would find a large number of kindred spirits whose characters directed their plots. And he was right.
So, dear reader, if you are a beginning author of fiction, and you find that your characters are telling you how to proceed, don’t resist their direction. You will find that, although your story may go in a direction different from the one you chose, it will be better for following where your ‘voices’ lead.
My most recent work, Flood: A Saga is available as an eBook down load or on CD-ROM from SynergEbooks.com.; FictionWise; CyberRead; eBooks.com; and Amazon Kindle. Echoes of Ellen, my earlier novel is available as a download or on CD-ROM from the same sources. The print copy of Echoes is available from SynergEboks, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.
