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Then I saw it. The dreaded story building structure. All the worksheets with labeled boxes meant to force kids into the confines of an organized story. Plot. Setting. Characters. Problem. Solution. Ending. No room for surprises. No flexibility for growth. 

Before I started screaming and pulling my hair out in protest, I had to remind myself. She’s seven. This is good for her. Giving her a basic idea of story building can help her in fictional development. These labeled boxes will not define her as a writer indefinitely.

Keep your cool, Mom. Save the crazy rant against the (writing) establishment for your therapist. (That would be my husband. The man forced to suffer through my endless tirades on anything that annoys me in life.)

Why the PTSD from second grade story building worksheets? Rules of that nature nearly snuffed me out as a writer. Made me feel so confined and robotic. My fiction lacked air to breathe. It couldn’t grow. 

As you get older, there’s a little voice inside your head that gets progressively louder. Eventually it just shouts. Balks at the system. Refuses to be ignored.

“To hell with it!”

The minute I decided to listen to this voice, I became a writer again.

The first thing I realized is writers tend to get in their own way. Just listen to the questions they ask one another and it becomes clear.

“How do I make my character get from Point A to Point B in the story? It’s not working like I want it to.”

“This is the scene where they are supposed to do (insert whatever they’re supposed to accomplish here). How can I make it work?”

“I want my character to be more (this) or less (that). But she’s just coming off like a bitch. How can I write her better?”

It is human nature to want to control everything. The world around us. Our relationships. Our writing. But the great thing about a fictional world, is that it’s just that. Fictional. There are no rules. There’s nothing that says a character must behave a certain way just because it was in your original design. Try it this way:

Don’t make your character do anything. If she is stubbornly refusing to get from Point A to Point B, ask yourself why. Why is she holding back? Is there something more there? A facet to her or a story that deserves to get developed?

A scene doesn’t have to do what you initially set out for it to do. Is there a change of direction? Or an additional scene that needs to be added to bring the final point to fruition?

As for your character – maybe she’s just a bitch. Some people are. Scarlett O’Hara was. All she cared about was that damn house and the insufferable Ashley Wilkes. Still, readers loved her. Let your character be who she is demanding to be.

It took me years to throw out the Playbook. When I finally did, I saw my stories evolve into tales I’d never dreamed of.

In my recently published novella, “Finding Her Voice,” I had no original design. No blueprints acting as a point of reference throughout my carefully constructed writing. I simply stumbled upon a writing prompt in the form of a photograph. It showed American suffragists in front of a Midwestern women’s party office with a banner proclaiming their desire for the right to vote. I’ve always found the woman’s suffrage movement to be fascinating, so I decided to write a little something about it. It wasn’t meant to be anything special. It certainly wasn’t meant to get published. I was just bored. 

I sat down at my favorite coffee shop. Hands poised over my keyboard. No idea what I was about to write. The words came from nowhere. The characters formed without painstakingly charting every detail of their lives down to their favorite ice cream flavor. At the end of my writing time, I sat back stunned. 

Where had this story come from? I had no idea. All I knew was I wanted to see what happened next. I wanted to learn more about these people. 

I, the author, wanted to see how the story ended.  I spent the next several months writing. The story evolved on its own with only a little gentle guiding from me. My characters came to life. They behaved in ways I never expected. And, yes, one of them is a bitch. I tried to soften her a couple of times. Didn’t work. I even wrote an entire chapter aimed at eventually smoothing her over. No matter how hard I tried, it just couldn’t be helped. She’s a bitch. Some people are. Though she’s a supporting character, she fought the hardest for her personality. I decided to let her have it.

Now before you assume I’m one of those people who lives life flying by the seat of her pants, I’m not. I’m very organized. I follow recipes down to the smallest detail. I have spreadsheets and lists for everything. I have a homeschool schedule down to the minute. You want to know how organized I am? I enjoy office administration. Post-its, those little colored tabs that point to where you’re supposed to sign. Love it all. 

Writing, however, is art. It’s meant to flow. It’s meant to evolve, to change. I’ve been working on my current WIP (Work-In-Progress) for months and decided to change my main characters’ names. Twice. They weren’t feeling it. My female all but jumped off the page screaming, “This is not who I am and you know it!” Then, my hero had to chime in. “Well, if she gets a new name, I wouldn’t mind one, too.”

Introducing Lanie and Jace! They finally seem satisfied.

The best advice I can give writers is to get out of your own way! Don’t let the rules suck all the creativity from your soul. Allow your characters to evolve. To be who they’re meant to be. If the story starts to veer in another direction, let it. Try not to force it back. See where it takes you. Yes, it might mean going back and editing previously written scenes. It might even mean adding a few new ones or – gasp! Adding a whole new character. Lanie’s BFF Vivienne was not originally in the story. Then all of a sudden, there she was. Standing on the outside of the margins, impatiently tapping her Jimmy Choo’s as if to say, “Hello?? Where do I make my grand entrance?” And a grand entrance it was. Vivienne was not part of the plan. She was something better. She was a genuine surprise and the life she breathed into my story was colorfully rewarding. Now she’s earned herself the starring role in the sequel (she’s thrilled!). 

If you give your creativity the freedom to lead instead of follow, amazing things can happen. One new twist can spark another and another. The story you end up with will far outweigh anything you imagined. 

So, toss the Playbook aside. To hell with all the rules. You have my permission to do what you’ve always been meant to do. 

Write.