Wisdom for Writers by Isabel Allende

“When you feel the story is beginning to pick up rhythm—the characters are shaping up, you can see them, you can hear their voices, and they do things that you haven’t planned, things you couldn’t have imagined—then you know the book is somewhere, and you just have to find it, and bring it, word by word, into the world” (1, pp. 11-12).

Comment: Characters with minds of their own are similar to alternate personalities in multiple personality (a.k.a. dissociative identity disorder). Search “Isabel Allende” in this blog for past posts.

1. Meredith Maran (Editor). Why We Write: 20 Acclaimed Authors on How and Why They Do What They Do. New York, PLUME, 2013.