Into the Fire

In horse racing we have a term for when a horse gets the best of a rider and "runs off". Usually this happens in the morning during the hours of training. For various reasons a horse decides to test, ignore, or disregard his exercise rider or jockey and takes off at a dead run or at an uncontrolled run. It's no fun to be on board when this happens because if fear motivates this action, there's no telling where the horse will run. Will he stay on the track? Will he head for the gap? Whatever his choices, the rider keeps working to gain control of the jaws that have gone cold and unresponsive.

Yesterday Brenda J. brought up characters who "run off" with us as writers. They head directions we never planned to send them. No matter what we thought was right for them, they've set their sights on other ways and means and left us in their dust. While some of the highly organized and plot-driven calculators might find this laughable and absurd, it's a plight we seat-of-the-pantsers contend with on a regular basis when writing our novels.

Characters insert themselves into stories without so much as an introduction and dominate a place we never pictured for them. They claim their portions of our stories and refuse to exit until they've made their marks. Once they've interacted and intersected with the other characters they dare us to remove them, making a solid case for their necessities to the plot. Obviously it's useless to argue with them.

Not nearly as frightening as being a passenger on the lighter exercise saddles of a running off Thoroughbred, a writer can still feel a little out of control when his characters stage their own scenes and invite friends we never intended to include on the guest list.

So much of writing is out of our control . . .

Father, we rest in your ultimate control and thank you for you it. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.