Characters, um, what are you doing?

My writing was spiraling out of control, my characters were running in the opposite direction I planned for them to run. I tried to urge them to come back, to turn this way, but they refused. I was beginning to get frustrated and the negativity was swarming in like a strange mist that I was not used to nor enjoying.

This changed rapidly, though. I sat down tonight, said my little prayer and began entering their world. I will admit I was not jumping with excitement or joy, I didn't want to see my characters do these odd things nor make the mistakes they were making. But when the words started rushing out, with such force and pressure, once again they surprised me by tumbling, swirling, and jumping right back on track. With every word that came out a huge, shiny smile spread across my face, relief was my company now.

I realized that you have to trust your characters, your subconscious when writing. Don't deny what comes to you, don't try to change what you know should happen.

Sometimes we need to crawl through the dark tunnel of writing to find the well-deserved, shining light at the end. We need to write certain things that go against our taste, what we planned, to find our true story.