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Great post, Bruce.Okay, I'll jump in and share a recent experience with being reluctant to veer off-course, but finally giving in.I just finished the first draft of a middle grade novel. In my original vision of the story, one of the central characters was an adult (an eccentric, rather dim-witted adult). Since I spend a lot of time thinking about story before I put pen to paper, by the time I

Barbara,Your example is wonderful!Not only do you show how a writer needs to be open to swimming in new directions... but you reveal the process by which you let go of one vision and reached for another, not quite knowing what you were reaching for. That kind of reaching (in the dark) takes courage, and raises another question: how does a writer know when it's time to let go? Maybe others will

Interesting to read more of Barbara's writing experiences. I have to say that few of my original name choices seem appropriate by the time my character has revealed more of his/her self in the story.Also, I've gone back and changed first-person stories into third-person limited at least twice, and thought they seemed better, but who knows for sure which, if either, was a "mistake?" Even if the

Jack,Names, as you suggest, often change in the process of creating characters. Does that mean the earliest name was a mistake? Or was it instead a step on the path to learning the character's true name?Same for first person vs third person. Why should we say it's a mistake to write in one pov vs another... if, in the end, we find our story? Maybe the "mistake" helped us hear something different.

And addendum to my post about veering off-course: I had a long conversation with my editor yesterday (after which we will be starting contract negotiations - woohoo). When I told her that that particular character had started out as a dim-witted adult but I had changed her to a child, she said, "Oh, I'm so glad you did. Children are so much more interesting than dim-witted adults.":-)

Barbara, I feel like you've just announced the sighting of a new planet (filled with characters who I'm eager to meet). It's just lovely to imagine a new book of yours on the way.In the meantime, good luck with the negotiations. (A contract is one case where, perhaps, making mistakes isn't the best way to learn things.)

An interesting subject, this mistakes. Who defines what constitutes a mistake? Who says there is any such thing as a mistake, or that they are, in some sense, a bad thing.Is there any more creative 'person' than mother nature, who invented flying, the eye, swimming under water, and all sorts of other things... and what does mother nature rely on? MISTAKES. Evolution works by copying genes

Thanks for sharing your insights into mistakes. I especially enjoyed the phrase "mind-forged manacles" as a way of describing how our own expectations--or fears--can ensnare us.