Things that surprised you about your own works? - Writers Forum

Lord Raiden · 11-02-2005, 12:45 AM

This has been coming back to me several times lately as I think back about some things that someone here mentioned about my novel "Rathul" from my "Survival of the lost fleet" series. They had mentioned how much they had liked "Mikhail", the russian engineer that was a friend of the main charecter and mostly a side charecter himself, yet no mention was made of the main charecter, "Mike", much to my surprise. Several people who previewed those first chapters mentioned that. And a few other things they picked out too, but still no mention of my main charecter. heh. Not something I expected, but it was certainly an interesting discovery.

Have you had things like this happen before in your writings?

journyman161 · 11-02-2005, 03:59 AM

I haven't had that sort of thing, but a number of cosmology poems I wrote thinking they were nice descriptive pieces had, on re-read after i posted them, several levels of meaning, sometimes 3 levels. I had no realisation of those levels till some time had passed & I read back over them to see why I got certain comments & suddenly realised the complexity in them.

Kimahri · 11-02-2005, 03:24 PM

I haven't had anyone else bring something to my attention that surprised me but I have surprised myself while writing and developing my story. Several times things have worked out in a way or with a character that I did not expect. I remember that I had a plan for one of my supporting characters in what he would do and his significance to the story and then as I continued to write an opening suddenly appeared and I found that I could use the character not only in the way I initially intended but also in a way that I think gave them a fuller embodyment in the story.

kimahri