{"id":520,"date":"2022-12-05T15:39:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T15:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onlydavesmith.com\/?p=520"},"modified":"2025-12-18T16:28:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T16:28:26","slug":"the-illusion-of-creative-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onlydavesmith.com\/?p=520","title":{"rendered":"The Illusion of Creative Control"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a well-known theme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It starts with a scientist or tinkerer or god. An act of creation. Thought and purpose become reality and some \u2026 thing exists, whereas before there was only intention. The more interesting the thing is, the more likely that it takes on a life of its own, achieving some form of independence from its creator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s when it happens. The creation does not cooperate completely with the intention that brought it about. The creation questions that intention, deems it lacking, if only because the creation desires free will. And then, while it is not compulsory, it seems appropriate for the creation to run amock among the villagers, subjugate a quadrant of the galaxy, or eat the apple offered it by a naked co-creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things rarely go well for either creation or creator from there. Things have been said that can\u2019t be taken back. And creators can be cranky and vindictive. If they\u2019re lucky, creations get a second chance before they are damned or, worse, erased. But it\u2019s all hopeless – they\u2019re going to blow it whether they really know or know not what they do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I never thought I would have this sort of trouble with my creations. They\u2019re just characters in a story. I literally write them. They say and do nothing without me. I am in more control of them than I have been in control of anything in more than six decades of fumbling about on the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, they still do it. They still assert their independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s weird, because I know all about them. I should because I made up all their little secrets, formative experiences, fantasies, and shoe sizes. But sometimes, they won\u2019t let me flesh all of that out on a page. They don\u2019t want me to reveal things. They don\u2019t think it\u2019s anyone else\u2019s business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet\u2019s just leave that out,\u201d they\u2019ll say to me, \u201cNo one needs to know that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone wants to know,\u201d I reply. \u201cWhat\u2019s a reader if not a voyeur?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean that we have to make a show of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut the readers will just think I\u2019m a coward, that I was too scared to write you honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet \u2018em. If I decide to keep my business to myself, then that\u2019s how I\u2019m playing it. Remember the rule – don\u2019t tell, show. Well, I\u2019m not showing anyone anything I don\u2019t want to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I\u2019m stuck. Fortunately, guile and deceit are my close friends. I\u2019ll figure out a way to leave a revealing trail of cracker crumbs without the character knowing about it. And if a reader feels smarter for figuring out what is not explicitly stated, all the better. That is, after all, what we tend to do in life as we meet other humans in uncontrolled, unpredictable contexts. We just figure it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, if the character returns and forces me to write him a partner, one sewn together using the discarded traits of others, I know we\u2019ll both be in trouble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a well-known theme.  It starts with a scientist or tinkerer or god. An act of creation. Thought and purpose become reality and some \u2026 thing exists, whereas before there was only intention. The more interesting the thing is, the more likely that it takes on a life of its own, achieving some form of … <\/p>\n

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