Who’s Driving?

by Steven Rogers @SRBooksForHope

Writing a novel is like climbing into a car, pulling onto a long road, and driving until you reach what you think is the end. Along the way you will maneuver around twists, turns, unexpected side routes, and too many potholes to count. My guess is that most writers, even those who meticulously plan, are not 100% certain where the journey will take them.

In my workshop “Ten Tips for Beginning Writers,” I encourage authors to determine who is sitting behind the wheel of their creative car. There is no one answer and there is no right answer.

There is only what works for the individual telling the story.

When I write, I’m a character-driven “pantser.” I invariably know the beginning and end of the story, with only a broad understanding about what will happen in between. For example, I may know a character is going to take a trip somewhere, but I am not fully aware of everything that will occur on that trip. Instead, I let my characters advance the narrative, leading me through the plot as events unfold.

To do this, I invest a significant amount of time getting to know my main characters before I begin writing. I outline their backgrounds and write short sketches about them. I understand their likes, dislikes, and quirks. Sometimes these exercises evolve into short stories. I also identify their role in the book—are they dynamic individuals who will grow and evolve with the story or are they static characters designed solely to help move the plot forward? By the time I’m ready to start my novel, I know what the characters look like, how they dress, how they think, and how they talk. I’m prepared to put them in charge of the journey.

Of course, I don’t always follow my own advice. While drafting my novel A Year in the Room, I wrote sixty pages and, after rereading them, deleted all but ten. Why? The narrative was too “flat.” I was trying to shoehorn my characters into how I thought the plot should progress, rather than letting them take me where they wanted to go. A deeper review convinced me I was trying to manufacture a story I thought the reader would find interesting, rather than tell a story based on how my characters would behave and interact. The actions they were taking didn’t fit their personalities and the dialogue was stilted, aimed at telling the reader what I thought he/she wanted to hear. Said another way, I was not letting my characters drive the car.

Fifty pages represents a couple of months of hard work. Letting go of them was not easy. As I pushed the delete button, I forced myself to take a deep breath and trust my process. I shut things down for a few days, went back to my early character research, and started again. This time, I put whoever was in a scene behind the wheel. Along the way, I ended up telling the story I wanted to tell, not one I thought others wanted to hear.

As I alluded to briefly above, everyone’s writing process is different. Some people put characters into the driver’s seat, some put plot, and some put theme. This is a good thing. Without variety, we would always be reading similar narratives told in similar styles. Either way, be true to yourself and faithful to your process. If you do, you’re much more likely to be happy with the results.

Steven Rogers is the award-winning Christian author of the “Reluctant Pilgrim” series. His most recent novel, A Year in the Room was published in November 2024. The book is sequel to his debut novel, Into the Room. He lives in Richmond, Virginia with his wife of thirty-nine years, Kathy.