Patience: Scene changes & arguing with a character

It is Sunday everyone. We (Bama) beat LSU yesterday so my morning was blissful at wake up. Beautiful day, no clouds, nice breeze, leaves falling and November is gorgeous in the South. Perfect day, right?

Fast forward to late afternoon.

I had worked on my manuscript this morning, reading my current pages and tweaking a few scenes. Content with the progress and needing to take my husband lunch (he had to go into the office today) I decided to scoot by the mall. I do so, discover an adorable outfit within my budget, see hubbie for a moment then head back to the house quite happy with the outing.

After spending some quality time with iTunes I stop to listen to a new selection. You see this is my inherent problem and solution all balled up into one. Music is essential when I write. I love to listen to music that applies to the scenes I am working on. I tend to write visually whenever music plays. This can be wonderful and it can be confusing. A simple scene that is not meant to turn heated between characters might if the sound system is carrying the right/wrong tune. Thus leading to magic or deletion.

So here I am just listening to some music that reminds me of a scene I worked on this morning and then it happens. My character's voice rises above the song. It seems she thinks that scene just did not feel right, aggravating as it is, I think it over. At first I quickly dismiss the thought and find myself arguing with her in my head. Then I discover that it might need to be considered. She is right. Yep. I open the file, turn the song down a little to more background audio and find myself three hours later having completely rewritten the scene and having to piece a few chronological changes together.

I cursed, grumbled and typed. It is amazing how allowing the idea of a new layout affects the scene. Humor found its way into a tight situation and does so without being campy. I can almost feel the smugness of the character.

My style of writing is one that tries my patience but seems to teach me every time I let the story flow. There are many occasions where I resist the impulse to change something just because I am stubborn or because I feel I know better than the character. More often than not the end result is much better when I just relax, trust my characters and let my fingers walk.

So again, patience is a virtue. Don't we all know that one? I just wonder if the author of that line ever thought about patience being applied when an imaginary person you created is arguing with you...