You know what the best part of creative writing is? The freedom. This morning I spent a few hours polishing a short piece I’ve been working on over the past couple weeks. I created a fictitious magazine called Dead Poets Weekly, invented a staff writer and sat him down with Count Guido da Montefeltro, a character in Dante’s Divine Comedy. My writer interviews The Count about his allegations that Dante broke the law when he misrepresented himself and entered Hell. As the interview progressed, the motives and actions behind The Count evolved way beyond what I had originally created. Even the concept of Hell drastically changed. Then, when it was nearly done I also invented an editor and put in a brief editors note. The editor also decided if and where brackets should be used to clarify what The Count was saying. The thing about writing a story, is that the characters, the good characters, really do take on a life of their own. I’ve been upset before when my characters did things that I didn’t want them to. But if I tried to stop them, everything would suddenly feel artificial. When I get really into something, I usually find a point where I’m no longer controlling my characters, just recording what they do. Somewhere, something deep in my head must be controlling them, but it’s not a part I can touch and that’s what I like. That freedom of tapping into my subconscious and letting my characters do what they want, that’s the best part of creative writing. That best part is also exhausting though. I think I’m going to take a nap then go for a walk. What are you going to do?