Mark Twain, Stephen King, and Toni Morrison said writers don’t “create” characters, and so must learn to “prune” and “control” them

Most book reviewers, professors of literature, and judges for awarding literary prizes still think of literary characters as totally controlled by their authors. Why then, as I’ve quoted in past posts, have writers like Mark Twain said that authors never “create” characters? Why have bestselling authors like Stephen King said authors must “prune” their characters? And why has a Nobel Prize novelist like Toni Morrison said she could tell when characters had gotten away from their authors, who must learn to “control” them?

Most book reviewers, professors of literature, and judges for awarding literary prizes still think it is a joke when authors say that their major characters talk to them and seem to have minds of their own. I used to think they were joking, too. But I finally realized it is their creative process, not a joke. And it’s time that others realized it, too.

One implication is that judges for awarding literary prizes should think twice before awarding novels whose idiosyncrasies are not the author’s brilliance, but are, as Toni Morrison might say, the author’s failure to control her characters.