Writing Fiction · 13 September 2025
I am not sure how it works, but I when I write fiction, the characters seem to have their own wills and do what they want. It is crazy. Then again, it is a bit like real life.
Now I am not just going to rehash what I wrote when I wrote Just the Watcher. In fact, when I looked at the title of this piece I thought, “I wonder if I already wrote this?” So I looked. I have several pieces on writing fiction, but I found what I was looking for among all the detritus that is my blog. It was right there in the piece, Just the Watcher. And that piece is true. I just watch the characters in my mind and narrate what I see. At least to a certain extent.
I was marveling at the extent to which my characters were doing their own thing in my current book project. In fact, I was marveling at the way I approached this project from the beginning. It might be the first time that I have done a story this way.
What might that way be? I am glad you asked.
I knew the beginning and the end of the story of my current project so I started there. I actually wrote the prologue and the epilogue before I wrote anything else. I do not know that I have ever done that before. Written both the beginning and the ending. That is absurd. But it was rather satisfying in a strange sort of way. Think about it. If you know the beginning and you know the ending, you just need to fill in the rest. How hard can that be?
It turns out that it is not that difficult at all. At least it has not been so far. The interesting thing though is that there have been twists and turns in the story that I had not anticipated. There were things that did not make sense that I had to change (actually, one in particular that I still need to change). But there have also been things that I just did not think about until they happened. One character knew another one in a previous context. One character becomes sympathetic towards another. And quite frankly, he is supposed to be at the very most neutral toward the other character. Oh the drama!
The thing is, I am supposed to be the creator. I am supposed to know how the story goes from beginning to end. I am supposed to direct everybody’s actions. Be the puppet master. But I suppose writing is like herding cats. You have a general idea of what is supposed to happen. You know where the cattle drive is starting out and ending, but you never realize that it will meander where the cats are taking you. The road to the end is not as straightforward as you imagined. At least that is what I experience when I write fiction. For me, writing is The Long and Winding Road. But instead of leading to your door as the Beatles sang, it hopefully leads to the ending that I envisioned. That I even wrote already.
Which, by the way, is not a given. It appears that I might have a slightly different ending to my story than I have already written. I know this even though I am not all the way there yet. Ah well. The best laid plans of mice and men…
I am not sure that I have given much insight into the writing process. Even into my own writing process. But I suppose that is par for the course. For maybe even when writing a short blog post, I just narrate what I see in my head. Or rather, what I hear in my head.
When all is said and done, maybe writing is not all that mysterious. Maybe it really is just knowing where you start and where you end and figuring out what happens in the middle. Which makes sense. For is that not what life is like?
© 2025 Michael T. Miyoshi
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