'I don't talk to my characters, but I can do something that's almost like watching them on film.'
This is fascinating to me, because I do BOTH. When I'm writing, I'm essentially watching the story on film and writing it down; I don't necessarily know what the characters are thinking or why they do what they do, first off, and because I don't "hear" the dialogue very clearly I don't always get lines in the right places. I'll often have to rewind the film and watch a pivotal point two or three times. Sometimes there's also an element of... choose-your-own-adventure; the story will go in different directions depending on what dialogue I put in, and I have to pick the option that's most in character to keep it on track.
But I also can talk to my characters, and when they throw me off track like you mention, I often HAVE to in order to get stuff to make sense. I'm kind of curious how you work out tricky scenes without that? *interested face* Is it just... like getting to know a fandom character, you have to watch more of their "canon" inside your head and see how it goes?
Re: Pip
This is fascinating to me, because I do BOTH. When I'm writing, I'm essentially watching the story on film and writing it down; I don't necessarily know what the characters are thinking or why they do what they do, first off, and because I don't "hear" the dialogue very clearly I don't always get lines in the right places. I'll often have to rewind the film and watch a pivotal point two or three times. Sometimes there's also an element of... choose-your-own-adventure; the story will go in different directions depending on what dialogue I put in, and I have to pick the option that's most in character to keep it on track.
But I also can talk to my characters, and when they throw me off track like you mention, I often HAVE to in order to get stuff to make sense. I'm kind of curious how you work out tricky scenes without that? *interested face* Is it just... like getting to know a fandom character, you have to watch more of their "canon" inside your head and see how it goes?