Mistress of the Universe

As a writer, I like being in control of the story. I have the “literary” power of life and death over the characters. Not that I’m a power-crazed maniac or anything, but doesn’t that sort of make me a god? It would be a fine thing to be a god in any capacity. I’d be right at home in a comic book universe, but I’m not sure yet whether I’d be a hero or a villain. On this chilly, gray last-of-summer day, I’m leaning toward the dark side.

This whacked thinking was brought on by a rewrite I’m doing of a chapter in The Traveler, Book 4. With one click of a mouse, I changed a character’s entire story arc (actually, what I did was decide he didn’t have the two kids I had previously written in for him.) Takes a hell of a nerve, right? I mean, if you think about the characters having their own personal realities within the bigger plot universe, I just bounced the poor guy into a completely different universe. I tell myself it’s okay; the guy with the kids is somewhere else and the guy without the kids doesn’t know he ever had any. Whew.

So now I have to give him a different purpose in life. The problem is that there are so many options it’s hard to choose. I could put him in a mountaintop monastery and turn him into a monk, or I could make him an FBI agent. Regardless of the option I choose, I have to incorporate that change into the overall story arc and make sure it doesn’t trash any plot element that’s already been published. Continuity is everything!

If I were a god, I’d give myself the power to look at the computer screen and the thoughts in my head would magically appear! No more typing for me. I can immediately see some problems, though; I’d have to be really focused on what I wanted to “write”. If I were to lose focus and drift into stream-of-consciousness mode, I can only imagine what would turn up.

My poor editor would be so confused.