When Writing Gets Its Own Way

Hello! And Happy Spring!

Ruth over at Amongst Spring Blossoms has initiated a "write about your writing" week, which looks like supreme fun! Even though I'm posting very late on the last day of the writing week. (sorrryyyyy!!!) And so I have decided to write this post about...The Writing. More specifically, about what happens when I sit down to write but then the characters and the story take over from me and write themselves.*CAUTION: This post is bound to be disjointed and rambly!*

To begin, have you ever been writing something, intending it to end a certain way, and then looked back later and realized that it turned out completely unlike how you intended? For example, I've been working on my last prequel, chronologically right before the trilogy (the six book series ended up like Star Wars and no I didn't plan that), and I finished the very first handwritten draft not long ago. As I've been reading through it and making (mostly mental) notes about what to change, I suddenly realized that a very great portion of the story is a love story.

How did that happen? I didn't intend this! But all of a sudden, there it is, and there's no way I can change it. I mean, it's a Very Necessary element of the plot, we all must admit. I didn't mean for that to be such a central element of the story, and of course I try to keep any amount of romance as un-sappy and as respectable as possible (ahem, I don't do lines like "I'd die for you" or "I don't like sand"). However, the story took a turn in a direction that I had not expected. 

Sometimes I find that certain characters have more of a propensity to dictate their own actions than others. There are a few I can control. A Few. But many of them just pop up and tell me "this is what I'm doing next, get your pen ready." *glares at a certain character* 

Has this ever happened to you? Have you been writing, intending a certain character to do a certain thing, and then it somehow ends up differently? The funny thing is that when my characters take over the book for me, it occasionally turns out to be much better than I could have managed on my own.

I think the reason that authors (maybe it's just me...I am remotely crazy) say "my characters took over the story for me" is that they tend to think in the minds of their characters. For example, my Sherlock Holmes Story. I was trying to keep it so much in the spirit of the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories - keeping characters and the "feel" authentic, and the only way I could really do that was to try thinking the way that my characters would think. Now, right now I'm trying to write what Mycroft Holmes would say...let's see...he's grumpy, lazy, and doesn't care what anyone else thinks about really anything...Sherlock as a young boy? He would be unfazed at his own oddness when he is around other children, act very mature for his age, and always be figuring things out in the background. 

When I start to talk to myself like this in my head is when some of (arguably) my most realistic writing takes place. Who knows why? Maybe I get more "into" the story that way. Maybe it's easier to write realistic dialogue if you realistically think about your characters' personalities and what they would say. Maybe I'm just crazy. That's probably it. 

In any case, I used to think it was ridiculous when authors in movies and such would say that the characters took over and the story wrote itself. When they talked about their characters being very real to them, I was skeptical. But now, after writing six books (writing being a relative term including things that are just hand-drafted), I think I begin to understand. 

Hmm...this is a rather short post. But there isn't much else to say. I just happened to be thinking about the ways that stories change when you least expect them to, the way that characters can get a bit out of hand. What are your thoughts? Have you ever had characters seem to dictate your story? 

(because there has to be a Princess Bride quote in here somewhere)

War Horse: Michael Morpurgo vs. Steven Spielberg (sort of)

*WARNING: THERE ARE SPOILERS SPRINKLED LIBERALLY THROUGHOUT THIS POST* 

A Very Dear Friend gave this book to me and I immediately read it. (Of course, I was on a three-hour long bus ride stuck with a bunch of college band people, so that gave me a perfect time to read.) I fell in love the the movie War Horse the first time I watched it, and I've been wanting to read the book ever since I, ahem, learned that it was a book. 

(Also I've decided that since it's March now I don't want a wintery background.) :D

This was a very pleasant read. It was meant to be a children's book, and is definitely not a hard read--the spine is less than an inch thick and there weren't any words that I required the dictionary to understand. I still think that the story is a lovely one and the characters are very memorable, although I would rather it was in third person than told in first person from the horse's perspective. I like the idea of a horse story that isn't all butterflies and daisies (not that they ARE all butterflies and daisies), and this one has some nice realism and 'grit' to it, some life, if you get my meaning. And, although there are quite a few plot changes from book to movie, I still think that the movie did the book great justice. Neither were too graphic with the violence, but were both descriptive enough to be very sad and moving, to make the reader/watcher understand the horrible things that happened during the war. 

As to content, there really wasn't anything objectionable in this book. There might have been one or two slight language spots, but really, nothing bad--probably better content-wise than the movie. 

The plot changes that were significant? 

Well, first of all, after Captain Nicholls dies, Joey doesn't get taken by the Germans.  He is first assigned to another British rider named Trooper Warren, a very young man who is inexperienced with horses, but is a sweet, kind fellow. Trooper Warren was a very pleasant character and had quite a few memorable lines. My favorite part of his was when he is reading a letter from home to Joey (yes, they all talk to Joey), he talks about his sweetheart, Sally, saying that "as soon as this war's over and finished with, I'll get back home and marry her. I've grown up with her, Joey, known her all my life.  S'pose I know her almost as well as I know myself, but I like her a lot better." When I first came across that line, I had to stop and read it again several times because it was just so sweet I couldn't get over it! For some reason, I can't help but think that Steven Spielberg based the character Charlie (the one with the new hat, I can't remember his title) on Trooper Warren, but changed the character for his own purposes...anyhoo, that was the first plot change. 

 The little French girl's story was a little different, but we are given a bit more information about her sickness. In the book, she and her grandfather care for the horses and give them lodging while the horses work for the army by day, pulling ambulances. At one point, Emilie is seriously ill with pneumonia (on Christmas Eve night) and her grandfather confides his fears in the horses, Joey and Topthorn. However, at that point, she gets well again and all is happy, but Emilie is still weaker. That is the cause of her later death, we find out. Then the army takes the horses to pull their cannons.  Emilie insists she is "just lending them" to the soldiers and that she had to get her horses back someday, after the war.

Then the story is mostly like the movie, although everything seems to take a much longer time. The only thing I was disappointed in was the ending. The British find Joey again (after the toss of a coin by the German and British soldiers to see who gets the horse) and the doctor agrees to let him live. Now, Albert is, at this time, helping in the army's stables with his friend David. Unlike the movie, Albert's eyes were not hurt and he was in perfectly fine condition. He thinks his friend is teasing when he says he's cleaning a horse that looks exactly like Joey, but when Albert whistles his owl whistle, Joey comes and Albert knows that it is his Joey. I almost like the movie's version of this better for some reason, but the book is good too. 

There were about three things that were in the movie, not in the book, that I wished would have come from the book. One: the flag that Joey has tied on him throughout the movie is not really a part of the book’s plot. Two: the ending; Albert’s eyes aren’t hurt and it isn’t quite the same. Three: the German brothers, Gunther and Michael, aren’t in the book. I loved the story with the two brothers in the movie and I was a little disappointed that it didn’t come from the book.

Oh, and it didn’t have the scene where the soldier is walking through No-Man’s-Land quoting Psalm 23, which was a really beautiful thing in the movie. Other than that, though, I thought it was a lovely book. I enjoyed it and there are quite a few note-worthy quotes. To wrap up, I’ll just share a few quotes, and some pictures from the film too. I think Spielberg did a really good job capturing the feel of the book as a movie! It feels like a seamless transition from text to screen. (Please don't be depressed! I know it's a kind of sad story...but I don't want to make you sad.) 

“I always knew the British were crazy. Now that I know that they use horses such as you as cart horses, I am quite sure of it. That’s what this war is all about, my friend. It’s about which of us is the crazier. And clearly you British started with an advantage. You were crazy beforehand.” 

"There are brave men, German and English, lying out there on stretchers in the trenches." 

"They saved good lives today, those two - good German lives and good English lives."  

"Someone suddenly remembered it was Christmas morning, and they sang slow, tuneful carols all the way back." 

 "Captain Nicholls walked by my head turning his eyes out to sea so that no one should notice the tears in them. The wounded were everywhere - on stretchers, on crutches, in open ambulances, and etched on every man was the look of wretched misery and pain." 

"He'd have been proud of you, Joey. He'd have been proud of you, the way you kept going out there. He died leading that charge and you finished it for him. He'd have been proud of you."

Have you seen or read War Horse? What are your thoughts? 

Is there anything I didn't cover in regards to book vs movie?