A little bit of both, really. I think Pam sums it up for me best. I'm in overall control of where I'm headed, but I've often been heard to say that when I start a story it's a little like letting my characters out of the trap, watching them race ahead down a blind alley and running frantically after them to keep up.
I've lost count of the times my story has been completely derailed in mid-scene by my characters suddenly setting off on a tangent in the dialogue.
Half my writing time is usually spent trying to get a conversation back on the track I started out on, while keeping the tangent. (I usually end up liking the tangent. <g> Even if it does mess up and/or totally contradict the dialogue already in place). But, oh it's a good feeling when I succeed and manage to keep both.
On a similar note, has anyone else found that when inventing original characters you sometimes find that you come up with a name for them and 'they' don't like it? And you can't get to grips with that character until you name them something else? At which point, you realise that was their true name after all? Or...is that just me?
I remember in Caped Fear, I had two partners working for a company and I just could not get a handle on either of them. Finally, I realised that they had each other's names and that was the problem. X was a Y and Y was an X and I had them entirely the wrong way round. Once I swapped them over, they both clicked right into place. Go figure.
Jason smirked. "Dr. Klein let's his Lab Rat run his office! That wuss couldn't punch his way out of a paper bag.
Hey, hey, hey! Objection over here in the cage in the corner! Letting his labrat run his office doesn't make Bernie a wuss! It makes him an excellent judge of character and more intelligent than any human has a right to be and most humans are.
LabRat
