Skip to main content

Writing about creating good company

This is a passage I read today:

Most people read fiction not so much for plot as for company. In a good piece of fiction, you can meet someone and get to know her in-depth, or you can meet yourself, in disguise, and imaginatively live out and understand your passions. –Josip Novakovich

So, for a reader, characters are important. What about their importance for writers?

I’m struggling with a character in one of my stories. The plot needs to go one way, and he is going the other. How far would you let your character dictate your plot, and when would you rein him/her in?

Damyanti Biswas

Damyanti Biswas

Damyanti Biswas is the author of You Beneath Your Skin and numerous short stories that have been published in magazines and anthologies in the US, the UK, and Asia. She has been shortlisted for Best Small Fictions and Bath Novel Awards and is co-editor of the Forge Literary Magazine. Her literary crime thriller series, the Blue Mumbai, is represented by Lucienne Diver from The Knight Agency. Both The Blue Bar and The Blue Monsoon were published in 2023.

I appreciate comments, and I always visit back. If you're having trouble commenting, let me know via the contact form, or tweet me up @damyantig !

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

No Comments

  • damyantig says:
    02/02/2009 at 11:21

    Darc, I’m letting the character have its way. But this will change if during revision I find that the story does not work.

    Kym, it is a bit of both I guess 🙂

    Ovidia, seeding for another story makes a lot of sense. This might help me out of my current character predicament.

    Reply
  • Ovidia says:
    01/02/2009 at 10:36

    I ‘follow’ characters too. But sometimes they branch off into another potential book/story & I ‘seed’ that for next & carry on with what I’m trying to write…

    Reply
  • Kym says:
    01/02/2009 at 06:05

    I try really hard to follow my characters where they go. I can’t decide if that is good writing or failure of leadership;>

    Reply
  • DarcKnyt says:
    01/02/2009 at 01:10

    I’ve heard this before from writers, though I’ve never experienced it myself. I suppose it depends on the writer. My stories go the way I say they’ll go, period, but for writers who let the story “write itself”, I think they tend to follow the story rather than force themselves over it.

    I’ll be interested to see what you decide.

    Reply