takes the writer on a ride.
It’s easy to say, “plan your day and schedule your work,” and I’m sure every writer tries to do it, but the characters in the stories that the writer writers – they have a life of their own. They want to do their own thing. And this is why the plan, the schedule, and the characters, all get tangled up to cause a gridlock.
You see, each character in the story has a personality, and characters with strong personalities want a bigger slice of the pie, a stronger role to play. You may want to say that it’s the writer who, in the first place, created these characters, but quite like the parents who despite giving birth to and nurturing their children have little say in how their children must lead their lives, the characters too, want to lead their own lives – they want to make decisions, go on adventures, fall in love with the wrong person, or just plain laze around for a day or two.
Sometimes they harass the writer so, that she just disconnects with a particular story and starts focusing on another. When this happens, the character whose story has been flung into the drawer labeled “Unfinished Stuff,” starts harassing the writer. It tries using both the carrot and the stick. “Oh, don’t leave us, we are sorry for what we did,” “Please come back and release us from this dark dungeon,” it entreats. Then, if the writer doesn’t bite the carrot, the character returns with threats. “You better…or I won’t leave you alone. I won’t let you sleep, or eat, or write another story in peace.”
The writer, please note, who had started on a writing journey, expecting it to be a delightful and peaceful cruise, finds her ship being tossed about violently by the dark waters of a stormy sea.
This, my friends, is my story, and that character I told you about, is still riding on my shoulders, whispering in my ears…snickering, clawing, demanding…
when?
Yonder Worlds 
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