Let The Wookie Win

Sometimes, the muse is like a wookie. Allow me to explain:

One of the interesting aspects to writing a novel is how the story will take on a life of its own. Sometimes, the muse just won’t be ignored and will threaten to rip your arm off if you don’t let it have it’s way.¹ A character will say something you didn’t intend or some great idea will come to you in the middle of the night when you’re in that half asleep/ half awake state and you’ll sit up and go, “of course! Paper airplanes are the answer!” and thus, your story will now have a paper airplane subplot or scene where previously there was none and having that paper airplane scene makes the story better. It’s called Serendipity, the accidental discovery of something useful you weren’t looking for.

For the book I’m currently in the development stages of, I had a lot of ideas for characters, scenes and plot elements that weren’t really connected in any way, but could be if arranged just so. My first decision, one that was almost arbitrary, was that I wanted a male protagonist. Both of my finished novels² have female leads and I wanted to do something different. The problem was, the story didn’t work with a male protagonist. Some things just didn’t fit. So, I decided I’d expand the cast and do it as a family ensemble, with all their various plot threads playing off each other and tieing up at the end in a neat little bow. But as I started putting the story elements together, I found that one family member in particular was starting to dominate the story. She wanted to take center stage and all the other characters were obliging.

Which is how I came to realize that book 3 was also going to have a female protagonist, because that’s how all the various ideas fit together. This is hardly the end of the world, and it’s not like I’d be the first novelist in history to write almost exclusively with female leads.³

Sometimes, it’s better to just let the Wookie Win.