I’m not sure if there is a difference between playing god or playing goddess, but it feels like there should be one…

Anyway, writing may be a near perfect pursuit for the control freak. I’m trying to decide on a particular character’s fate (I’m not a big believer in fate in real life, but that’s the game in the fictional world) and the choices make me way too gleeful. Should the woman from his past return before or after the wedding? Hmmm… Is this woman an ex-wife or an ex-girlfriend? What does he want when he sees her again? What does he get? Like I said, way too much fun.

Of course, there are limits. His character is set, so he’s not going to kill anybody or steal. He’s not going to blissfully walk out on anyone or be mean-spirited because these things are not in his character. So, my role of higher power does remain restricted by the rules I’ve put in place. But nonetheless, a decision made long ago–he has a saving people thing–still gives way to plenty of paths and twists.

Then again, half the time it feels as if I have no control over the story at all-that it comes from a mysterious place that refuses to be mapped.

Which is it? Is the writer the puppeteer or the strings? I don’t know, but it’s the character who’s on the stage and who matters. Now if only I can decide his next stage directions! Broken heart or happily ever after?