“I never exactly made a book. It's rather like taking dictation. I was given things to say" ~ Lewis

I have been scolded more than once for not writing down proper notes for my books, for not plotting out in more detail, for answering the question of "Why did you use that plot twist" with "I didn't, it just happened, I had no say in it."

As an author it is assumed I know all the things of my characters and books. I don't write details of the plot though I do have random notes stuck all over my desks, typewriters, and pin board - they also fill up my various notebooks and tend to be no help whatsoever as I can never find them when I need them and just have to make new ones or rack my brain to try and recall what I wrote in the first place. My writing style is to sit down with a notebook and my dragon fountain pen and hope by the end of the hour - sometimes even the day - I haven't thrown said notebook out of annoyance with one of my characters.

With my characters I do not sit and work on their quirks and characteristics. They come to me, this madcap array of misfits usually with a story to be told and somehow I end up being the one to tell it. They come at various stages. Some with everything ready to be given to me - the basics of looks and personality to backstory - then others come with just a name and whisper things in my ear as I go along. I really cannot say if I have a preference of which I like better, though I will say the whispers can get on my nerves, especially when important details are held back until the last possible second - and even then only given over when I've drawn my saber on them and have it at their throat.

And when I try to explain this to most they do not understand. Some do, but many do not. How can I be an author when I lack so little knowledge and control over my own work? I can't honestly be shocked when I am writing and a plot twist shows up, can I? It is all for show, right? (As I throw my notebook across the room and screech like a dying pterodactyl because how dare said character do something like that?)

I can only say that every author is different. I have honestly never written a plot twist which has worked that I have sat down and worked out on my own. They flop hard when I do that. However, when the plot twist happens as I write, or is thrown in by the character, and I am not expecting it, then it works. My writing time consists of having various notebooks open around me, one for writing and others for taking down the whispered information handed me at random times.

I have been known to go for days stomping about my house, angry at a person only I can see, because they will not tell me something as simple as their real name. I work on more than one story at a time, having to set aside stories until the plot feels it is ready to reveal itself to me. I world build as the world unfolds before me, welcoming me in. I can never tell if I have created the new world or if it has always been there and just opens up to allow me to enter.

In that sense, maybe I do not create stories. Maybe I just see into other worlds, worlds no one else can, and write down what I see so that others can also see. Maybe I am a sharer of stories. That is a nice idea to think about as I throw my notebooks.