Patricia Stoltey

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Letting My Fingers Do the Writing

January 10, 2010 By: Patricia

Some of the most amazing things happen while we’re writing. We might sit down to type a scene that we’ve worked out. An hour later, we’re creating another scene that came from nowhere, had not been planned, and might even take our characters in a different direction than we expected.

I love those moments, but I don’t know how they happen.

Some writers prefer to write from an outline. I’ve tried it, but my story never stays on track. My outline becomes a moving target, as dynamic as the novel manuscript.

My current novel-in-the-works first draft, which is almost finished, features a woman on the run. At the beginning of the story, she thinks she’s merely leaving her husband and wants to make sure he can’t follow her until she’s ready to talk to him. Everything goes wrong, of course, and my character ends up running from bad guys, the police, and eventually, the FBI.

Yesterday, at a moment in the story when I thought she was trapped and would probably end the scene in handcuffs, my character stepped it up a notch and got away.

I don’t know where the getaway idea came from. Although I know how the novel will end, I don’t know where my character is going in the next scene.

Today I’ll open the file and read yesterday’s work. If it stands up under second-day scrutiny, I’ll put my fingers on the keyboard and see what happens.

Do you experience writing that seems to come from your fingers instead of your mind? Is the idea fun, mysterious, or just creepy?

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Category: Writing

Comments

  1. catwoods says

    January 11, 2010 at 11:36 am

    I love when my writing takes on a life of its own. Those are some of the best scenes.

    I hope you find more intrigue in your writing today that takes your MC on an unexpected journey before ending up in your final scene!

  2. Patricia Stoltey says

    January 11, 2010 at 11:19 am

    It’s reassuring to know these bizarre things happen to other writers as well. I’ve looked back at manuscripts in my files and thought, “I wrote that????”

    As for the fingers thing, Karen, I know it just seems that way because I’m a very fast typist. I’m a little awed by the process that gets an idea from my unconscious (or subconscious) mind to my computer monitor without “thinking” the words as I go. These fingers are connected to the brain in ways I don’t understand.

  3. Karen Walker says

    January 11, 2010 at 9:59 am

    Oh yeah, definitely experience this. Never thought it came from my fingers, though. It is a very strange feeling to read words I have no memory of having written. Where do they come from? Glad we’re not alone in this experience.
    Karen

  4. Terry Odell says

    January 11, 2010 at 9:46 am

    Oh, it’s definitely the surprises that keep writing fun. The hardest story I ever had to write was the one where my CPs and I plotted the whole thing out. Thank goodness it was a short story! But once I knew how it all played out, getting there was a struggle. It became a chore, finding the right words, instead of the right events.

  5. Carol Kilgore says

    January 11, 2010 at 8:54 am

    Yes. And it’s happened more now after my forced Holiday Hiatus. I love it!

  6. The Old Silly says

    January 11, 2010 at 5:59 am

    Yeah I DO know and experience what you mean. Not so much from my fingers, more like from some remote deep recess in my “id.” Stuff just bubble up and gets keyed out and I’m like a witness to it rather than the conscious creator. Kinda spooky sometimes.

    Marvin D Wilson

  7. Elizabeth Spann Craig/Riley Adams says

    January 11, 2010 at 5:20 am

    My murderer usually changes several times in a book. I’m usually as surprised as the reader as to his identity!

    Elizabeth
    Mystery Writing is Murder
    Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen

  8. Sylvia Dickey Smith says

    January 10, 2010 at 8:16 pm

    In one of my works I thought I knew who the murderer was—but I was wrong! LOL

  9. Jan Morrison says

    January 10, 2010 at 7:19 pm

    I know nothing – the last one I finished I didn’t even know it was a mystery until I was a quarter of the way in! And yep, it is my fingers or it is the characters being very independent of me.

  10. Kay Theodoratus says

    January 10, 2010 at 4:47 pm

    I’m much like Jemi. I know where my characters are going. Even the ending words. But haven’t a clue about how they are going to get there once the first third is drafted.

  11. Jemi Fraser says

    January 10, 2010 at 4:15 pm

    Yes! I love those moments! The YA steampunk I wrote (mostly) during NaNo had many of those moments. Either because it’s YA or because it’s NaNo. 🙂

    Actually I follow a similar pattern – I have an ending scene in mind, but have no idea how my characters will get me there!

Meet Patricia

I read, I write, I blog, and sometimes I do the laundry and cook. My 2014 novel, Dead Wrong, was a finalist in the thriller category of the 2015 Colorado Book Awards. Wishing Caswell Dead (Five Star/Cengage, December 20, 2017) is a historical mystery set in 1830s Illinois in the fictitious Village of Sangamon. The novel was a finalist for the 2018 Colorado Book Awards for General Fiction. My most recent release, In Defense of Delia (Five Star/Cengage, November 2022), is available in hardcover and will soon be available in ebook and trade paperback. Read More…

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