When I write a story, particularly a long story which becomes a novel, as I’ve mentioned before, the characters are incredibly real to me – inside my head. They often stay there even when the book is finished, published and out there in the world. Because my “people” are still living somewhere in another reality, their story often continues after I have finished writing it. They can develop,, change, take on new identities and have new adventures which might become a new story. Sometimes the end of my story is the end, even in my head and the characters sneak away and enjoy their lives elsewhere. Occasionally the story of their after-publication lives is so vivid that they stay with me for a long time and then I have to actually write down some of it, just to exorcise them from my mind.
In one of my novels there is an extremely violent and dangerous episode near the end. Two of the main characters have become very close – and the reader might expect that in their after-finale life, they do get together. Sadly that is not the case for various reasons, but they continue to bump into each other, still feel the connection because of what they endured, but have to continue in their less than happy separate situations. I would love to write another episode and give them some well-deserved happiness, but no, unfortunately not.
In another book there is a very unpleasant character, with almost no redeeming features – actually this person has absolutely no redeeming features. The character isn’t criminal, they don’t do anything against the law or anything like that, they are just an absolute shocker. The other characters, those related to him in some way, or are colleagues or friends, do continue, some find happiness through their own strength of character, or and by making compromises, others remain in the novel and their story ends on the last page.
There are a couple of my books, where I continue the story – in a virtual sense, after THE END , and I actually write what they get up to just to unwind from teh book. Usually these written ramblings remain just as rambling, but sometimes I have to be really determined to detach myself because the narrative is not going anywhere. One book which I wrote years ago, set in the 1990’s, was about a woman driven nearly out of her mind by a stalker. This is an edited ending of the novel – and their maybe-love story, but it is not a romance, it is characters heading into a new adventure: This is not a romance!!:
The black car stopped beside her. He sat, both hands on the wheel, staring straight ahead. She dropped into the passenger seat.
“Where to?” he said, his white face set and grim. “Where are we going?”
“Wherever you like.”
“It won’t be the same as it has been.”
“No, it won’t,” and joy began to creep into her heart.
He had tossed his hat into the back and it had caught on the top of the guitar case so it looked like a third person sitting there. He drove to the junction with the main Strand Road. He looked each way and, apparently at random, he headed west.
“Do you want me to tell you everything?” the woman asked… the distant past of another life and the more recent past of her life in Easthope. “Shall I tell you everything?”
He shook his great head. “One day. If you must. Because it doesn’t matter, in the end it really doesn’t matter.”
Tentatively she put her hand on his thigh.
“You see I love you, whoever you are. I love you,” he said but spoke coldly and sadly.
It would take a while, but she was damned sure she was going to make him happy.
“Yeah,” she said, “and you won’t regret it, I promise you..”
“We’ll see,” he said.
THE END
– but I can’t let go of the characters, and they won’t let go of me, so now I’m thinking of writing their story. However, do I use them, the two people who I’ve described in such detail – their characters, their trials and difficulties, their histories? Or do I use this as a skeleton to flesh out and have new people and clothe and describe them, and write about what happens next? Where do they go? What happens to them? Do they ever find happiness? Hmmm, not sure on this!!
