When Characters Take Over
(And Mama Chin’s Quick and Easy Cinnamon
Rolls Recipe)
Thanks Bri, for this great opportunity.
Today is about one of writers’ occasional but major frustrations: when
characters in a novel draft suddenly appear in a book and take over, sometimes
a scene, sometimes a plot, sometimes the whole book. This happens to me at
least once in a novel, sometimes more. Somebody pops up and says, “Here I am.
I’m saying this and doing that, deal with it already.” Then I, the author, get
up, stomp around the room, curse, hopefully colorfully, and realize that often
the character is a great gift. A gift that requires the writer, me, to do some
more work, sigh. But usually the new character has something to say/do/change
that improves the book.
Here’s one of my favorite characters that popped up and took over, darn
and bless her, and a recipe from her restaurant, Mama Chin’s Save On Café. For
more of Mama Chin, read Starke Naked Dead, my mystery novel out April 28th!
