https://mgcobb.com/2020/12/16/wabi-sabi-and-the-craft-of-writing/
I don’t begin a piece, whether a short story or a novel, with some lofty notion of an ideal plotline that takes the reader through an exposition, a crescendo and a climax, a resolution and a denouement. Some authors write this way, and I respect them for it.
My approach is a little different, inspired by the ancient Japanese principle of wabi-sabi, which celebrates the beauty of imperfection.
My characters, with all their flaws and imperfections, their tics and eccentricities, their peccadillos and peculiarities — they are the agents who tell me what to write, in what direction the story must go, how it will end. I trust them. I trust their judgment. Without them, there would be no story. My characters live inside me — when I’m awake and when I sleep. They speak to me. In a sense, they devour me. Without them, I wouldn’t be the writer that I am, and their stories would never be told.
If you are accustomed to writing in a different way, or to not writing at all, this may seem like an odd construct. Do I suffer from some sort of multiple personality disorder? Do I hear voices? You could argue that, perhaps, I do — not in the psychiatric sense (at least I hope not) but in the sense that the richness of the characters in my stories cannot come out unless I give them the freedom and the power to do so.
If I imposed a predetermined plotline on them, they would never have the opportunity to truly be who they are. This doesn’t mean that my stories don’t have gripping plots.
Read more details here ....https://mgcobb.com/2020/12/16/wabi-sabi-and-the-craft-of-writing/
